After seven secondary schools in Luxembourg introduced tablets as learning tools for 800 students, the nice people at online education platform Bee-Secure published parental guidelines in French and German to help provide a safety net for young users. Delano summarises key points in English, adding a few tips we picked up online.
Good practices
- When setting ground rules on use and screen time, remember to lead by example and respect these rules yourself.
- Talk to your child about using the internet safely: remind them never to give away their full name, address or telephone number without your permission and to think carefully before sharing a photo online.
- Explain the dangers and risks of the internet: viruses, hacking, phishing, cyber grooming.
- Speak regularly to your child about the internet, encourage them to show you what they like or find strange. Try out the games or apps your child uses.
- Talk about fake news and hate speech and discuss with your child what is the best way to react.
Making the device safe:
- Buy a protective pouch or case. We all know how fragile phones and tablets can be even in the safest hands.
- If using a second-hand tablet or phone, restore its factory settings and delete any data it may contain.
- Set the parameters to child use. With iOS devices, you can select by age and adapt the configuration under parental controls. On Android devices, you can select a limited profile. You can also set parental controls on the Play-Store or purchase apps giving you, as a parent, more control over what your child does online.
- Remember to configure the Play-Store in a way that limits access to downloads.
- Install a special, kids-friendly search engine. You can make this the start-up page for browsing.
- Ensure the device is regularly updated.
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