Have you wondered how much screen time is ‘good’ time? Advice for parents on this and more can be found on the parents page on the Irish site, www.webwise.ie.
Tips for safer surfing:
- Keep the computer viewing in a public place at home.
- Turn on Youtube ‘Parental Settings’ (free) Parental settings can be switched on and locked on. Click here for 1 min long youtube video showing you how to do it.
- Youtube kids is another option
- Set Google Safe Search (free) Click here to find out how to turn this on to block explicit results
- Download safer browsers ... www.duckduckgo.com and Brave are safer than others, and keeps browsing private, but still doesn’t stop children finding stuff they shouldn’t.
- This can also be added as an extension to Chrome/Chromium.
- Set up a ‘family filter’ on your home internet .. By logging into your online home broadband account you can usually set up parental controls.
- Timer Plug (€6)
Have a family meeting to decide how many hours wifi time the household might run best on each day. Then set the timer plug, plug the modem into it, and plug this into the socket. The modem will then switch itself on and off automatically according to the hours set on the timer plug. Meet again to reassess its value and timetable. (idea adapted from ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families’ by Covey).
The USA app Cynja allows you, as a parent, to control and monitor your child’s use of social apps, web, and more. A subscription to their weekly comic books for children help them learn more about the internet in a fun way.