“Very few parents use parental controls on Internet-enabled devices bought for their children, leaving youngsters potentially exposed to online threats,” says Carey van Vlaanderen, CEO at virus protection company ESET.
This is the case despite many parents being aware that their children “may be hiding aspects of their Internet activity from them”.
Online pornography is an obvious problem, but there are several other serious threats. These include cyber bullies, online scammers, and the fact that strangers can gain access to your family’s data if you click on the wrong link by mistake. All of these make online protection a must.
ESET’s Parental Control for Android app enables you to be sure that your children can enjoy online information and entertainment safely.
Advanced version
As is the case with most apps, an advanced version of Parental Control is available with more features. These include Application Guard (automatically blocks inappropriate apps), Web Guard (blocks predefined website categories), Time Management (limits the time a child spends playing games and using other apps), and Parental Message.
The latter ensures that your child acknowledges receipt of a communication from you; in fact, you can lock his or her screen until this happens. Parental Mode manages rules and generates reports on kids’ online activities, while Child Locator tracks your child’s location in real-time.
To make your life easier, you can create separate accounts on your desktop for each child. This will allow you to customise the level of protection for each one. Parental Control for Android is easy to use. “[It] helps parents to build a respectful relationship with their children who use their own smartphones or tablets,” says Van Vlaanderen.
Camera
Bear in mind too that cyber criminals can use malware to spy on victims through their web cameras. Unless your children are skyping, block the camera with tape. Finally, warn your children not to reply to someone online whom they do not know.
Sources: www.itweb.co.za; itnewsafrica.com.
