Why not give your kids free range to the internet, its not like they will get into trouble without parental controls….
So as a parent and head of operations fore Lime Telenet I feel like it is probably mandatory for me to talk about Parental controls. So I thought I would share 3 great free options for parents out there. I’ve used all three of these over the past few years as my children went from occasional internet users to full blown internet addicts.
Not so much Parental Controls but Kids Settings (Option 1)
So when my children were younger they only had use of the internet via whatever I put on netflix or when we as parents would hand them our phones. A lot of people don’t realize, most phones have a built in kid mode. I’ve been using Samsung Galaxy phones since my children have been very little they’ve made it super easy.
Check out a link to how easy it is
I’m not an Iphone user but they have all kinds of Parent content settings. What is nice about Apple ecosystem is that you set up your settings once and cascade them to all required products.
Check out a link to Apple’s Parental Controls
Parental Controls for kids personal devices (Option 2 and 3)
You say your kids have their own devices how can you limit them? Well let me tell you there are three options depending on the operating system. I’ve already Briefly touched on one, Apple’s Parental Controls.
The next tech giant is Microsoft, well don’t worry they have you covered too and it is free, bonus.
Microsoft calls their Parental Control, Microsoft Family Safety and let me tell you it works great for my son’s laptop. It includes sleep timers, screen time usage timers, restricted websites and programs, content restrictions, and purchase restrictions.
Here’s a link to Microsoft Family Safety
The third and also a big favorite of mine is again you guested it free and it is for android/google based devices, Google Family Link.
I use this particular app for my daughter as she use a Samsung galaxy tablet and well it runs android so it just makes sense. Again this app comes with great features such as content restriction, location tracking, screen and bed timers, purchasing and app installation restrictions.
Here’s a link to Google Family Link
As promised 3 great free options to help protect your children. These are in my opinion the best options over parental controls on routers or firewalls. Firewalls and routers only protect your kids when they are home not when they are at their friends or at school.
A few closing notes. So remember out of the 3 options only one of them restrictions your children to kid friendly only apps. That is option 1. The other two options due require them to be online to be protected and if your kids are anything link mine they find ways to exploit the system when offline.
The only option to fully protect your children from online threats is to be with them whenever they are online and observe what they are doing and who they are interacting with.
Check back in the future, as we will be posting about cyber security and other ways you can safeguard your home network. It is not just your kids that need to be safe on the internet.
Lime Telenet wants all of our customers to be safe online especially our future customers, your children. If you have any questions about parental controls or want to ask our opinion feel free to message us on Facebook or give us a call at 226-722-5114, we’d be happy to help you.
Mike
Lime Telenet
https://limetelenet.com 226-722-5114
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