Last week I spent some time speaking about Internet Security for your kids with Tony Ascombe, “Ambassador” of Free Products for AVG, an Internet Security firm specializing in keeping your business and home safe from
Internet threats. My feeling is that these types of discussions should take place regularly, and not just with security experts, but also in the home environment as well. Children are becoming exposed and involved with social networking at much earlier ages, even if parents don’t even realize this. Sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin introduce our children to social networking, and while potentially safe, these site are, in fact, planting the seed of online interaction at an early age. Parents really need to learn more about this and how they can protect their children. And you simply cannot throw technology at this issue and hope that it will “go away”; the other part involves parents taking an active role in discussing the internet and sites therein with your children.
Just the other day in fact, I turned off access to YouTube and Safari within the iPhones and iPod Touches that my 7 and 9 year olds use. I simply could not monitor what they were looking at, the sites they were interacting with and what they were doing in general. It was followed by a talk by my wife and I with them on why we did this. And don’t think that the conversation simply ends with that, it’s a regular thing, especially in my highly technology-enabled family.
Tony and I had an important discussion about the types of things that you can do to make your home Internet-enabled environment just a bit more safe for your kids. We also spent a few minutes discussing some survey results related to Internet Usage by children. I was actually pretty surprised by the results of the study. My interview is posted below (and available on YouTube here). After the video are some of the study results as well as some recommendations from Tony (which I agree with).
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