Empower Your Family With Cool Online Safety Tools for Kids

The answer is yes—thanks to some pretty cool and easy-to-use parental controls.

While many of these internet safety tools only take minutes to set up, not everyone is taking advantage of them. For example, a recent survey found that while 87 percent of parents know online safety tools exist, only about half have actually used them. What may be even more surprising is that, for the most part, kids want to be protected, too! In fact, 70 percent of teens say they actually want parents to set filters to protect them online.

So let’s take a deep dive into family online safety, demystify some of the best tools out there—and see how they’re about to make everyone’s life a whole lot easier:

Forget the arguments, set screen-time limits instead. Screen-time limits are a lifesaver for parents who want to create healthy online habits—minus the constant arguments. All you have to do is decide when and for how long you want your kids to use their devices—then just set it and forget it. Best of all, the time limits can be as granular as you’d like. For instance, you could set up a stricter time limit on school days, but then lighten up a little on the weekends or holidays. You can change it up anytime and you can even set limits on specific devices.

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No need to look over their shoulder, just set filters. Let your kids explore safely online using content filtering settings handpicked by you. Now you can block any apps and games you feel are inappropriate, allow access to ones that are okay, choose kid-friendly websites and more. If your child tries to download an app or game over your pre-set age limit, they will need your okay in order to proceed.

Bye-bye guesswork, you’ve got activity reports. Many family apps and browsers give parents the opportunity to gain better insight into their kids’ online habits, including details about their web, search, app and game activity. After you sign up for activity reports, be sure to opt-in to receiving emails that summarize weekly activities. It’s a one-and-done way to see “the big picture” of your kids’ activity across several connected devices.

Not sure how secure your default browser is? Change it. When it comes to safety, not all browsers are created equally. Make sure everyone in the family is using a browser that has features that let you:

• Enjoy the highest rated protection against phishing and malware attacks.
• Easily sync your passwords, favorites and settings across your family’s devices.
• Set up kids mode for specially curated, age-appropriate experiences—including the websites they can access, news, and beyond. (Some even let you create fun and colorful backgrounds and themes!)
• Get more done with easy-to-digest productivity features for parents that make viewing, organizing and sharing your content quick and easy.

Is anyone talking about online safety? If not, break the silence. When it comes to online safety for kids, parents should supplement all these great digital tools with good, old-fashioned conversations about privacy, safety and healthy online habits. Let them know the potential dangers (based on their age) of things like:

• Sharing passwords, photos, videos, school/home details, and other personal information online
• Following, friending or talking to anyone they don’t already know
• Meeting someone in person that they met online
• Buying, downloading or installing anything on their devices without your permission
• Online bullying

In order to build trust, be open and honest about the monitoring tools you have in place and encourage them to come to you with any questions, or if they encounter any problems online. It’s also important that they learn to trust their instincts—and tell you if they’ve encountered something (or someone) that makes them feel uncomfortable.