FBI-recommended resources to help keep your children safer online
Set boundaries and do not ban the internet. These are just a few suggestions from the FBI to help keep your children safer online.
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In May, I had the privilege of hosting an event through Restored that focused on internet safety for kids. Our speaker was an extremely qualified FBI agent who also happens to be a mother. She was – in short – amazing. Her depth of knowledge, practical takeaways and honest assessments of real-life situations were incredibly helpful for the women in the room…and, hopefully, for you too.
I took two full pages of notes knowing that other parents might find this information worthy of reading, so I’m sharing a few of my personal “aha” moments. I hope these takeaways spark new conversations or enhanced awareness around your home, just as they have in mine.
- Cultivate open dialogue. It could go without saying, but I’m saying it. Maintaining an open dialogue with our kids is the single most helpful thing we can do to keep them safe online. Even though they roll their eyes, grunt and huff and puff, they hear you, trust you, and you’re their most significant ally.
- Monitor social sites. Beware of social media and how it engages your children. Contrary to popular cultural belief, most predators aren’t soliciting children at parks with lollipops – they’re gaining information all too easily via social networking sites purely for grooming purposes. Lock those sites down with privacy settings. Ensure you know who their friends are in real life. And, remind kids that virtual “friends” aren’t actual friends.
- Red flag chat features. Any social media site or video game with a chat feature should be a red flag for parents. Chats create easy access for predators to position themselves as “friends” with a common interest as a child, which in turn develops trust and can lead to some scary things. Help foster communication with kids by playing games with them and reminding them never to share personal information with others online.
- Set reasonable boundaries. This can include things like not responding to texts from unfamiliar numbers or creating family rules that everyone abides by. A few suggestions also included using parental controls, turning on privacy settings, knowing your child’s passwords and not allowing phones or computers in bedrooms.
- Don’t ban the internet. It’s unrealistic to avoid the internet entirely, so an off-the-grid approach is unlikely to be a successful one. Helping kids understand things like privacy restrictions, hashtags, photomapping and other features of social media can also help deter inappropriate behavior from others. Encourage kids to share what they’re seeing and experiencing online rather than taking all devices away.
- Talk about the tough stuff. We have little control over how others behave online, which means there is potential for our innocent ones to see inappropriate content. Equip them for that moment by giving them strategies to cope with content they don’t want to see. It can be helpful to share that adults are occasionally served content we don’t want to see too, and that a great next step is to share what they saw with you while reminding them that they won’t be punished for someone else’s actions.
- Find grade appropriate resources from the FBI for third through eighth grades here.
- FBI resources for educators can be found here.
- Here’s an FBI-recommended guide for talking with kids about being online.
- Find helpful social media guides for parents here.
In all honesty, there was way too much really great information shared at the event to include in this post. Feel free to visit the Restored blog where I’ll post more insights and helpful resources at the intersection of kids and technology.
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