Kaspersky Lab: The end of the summer holidays is approaching, marking the start of the new school year. Soon children will leave the beaches to return to their computers and start using tools such as tablets and smartphones again to prepare their assignments. In fact, in addition to a wide variety of useful educational materials, children can easily encounter unwanted content on the Internet, such as pornography, violence and websites focusing on drug use or even suicide. 
For this reason, parents should pay special attention to their children's online activity. Kaspersky Lab advise parents who want to protect their children in cyberspace:
Περιορίστε το χρόνο που ξοδεύουν τα παιδιά στο Ίντερνετ
It's good for kids to spend some time online, looking for educational information, playing games, or even chatting with their friends on Facebook. However, everyone would agree that most kids probably spend too many hours online. That's why parents need to adopt strict rules about the time their kids spend in front of a computer. Before setting these new rules, parents should make sure to have an honest conversation with their child, explaining why these limits are important. Otherwise, they can come across as arbitrary punishment, creating problems in the parent-child relationship.
Check the content
It is important to explain to children what they can and cannot do online and to set clear rules. As children grow older, these rules should be reviewed. To ensure that children respect the rules you set, we recommend using the Parental Control features provided by Kaspersky Internet Security – Multi-Device, allowing parents to limit the time children spend online, block access to inappropriate websites and games, and prevent their personal information from being disclosed to third parties. Websites and games are divided into categories according to their content and the age of the children. Parents can also easily view detailed reports that record all of their children’s online activities.
Advise your children
When discussing the new rules with their children, it is good for parents to share certain advice with them. In this way, they will help their children protect themselves against online threats while also showing that they trust them.
- Do not disclose publicly or to strangers confidential information, such as your address, your school, etc. By «strangers» we mean people of any age that you do not actually know.
- Do not accept invitations to meet any person you do not know.
- Do not disclose your phone number or email to anyone and do not publish this information on your pages on social media.
- Do not open links that come from strangers.
- Do not trust tempting messages of any kind – free offers, discounts, increased fame or likes on some medium, etc. Simply delete these messages and do not open any of the links they contain.
- If anything happens that makes you feel uncomfortable or if you start receiving messages from third parties that worry you, inform your parents immediately and ask for their help to address the problem.
Try to identify a basic problem
Parents must not forget that children remain connected to the internet even when they shut down their computer, using tablets, smartphones and other devices. If children immediately start looking for another gadget as soon as they find that the computer is unavailable, parents must definitely ensure that these devices are also protected against digital threats. Check why your children prefer the digital world instead of meeting their friends in real life.
Is it a lack of social opportunities or is there a need for more physical activities? In any case, parents need to focus their attention on activities for the whole family that are not related to computers in order to ensure that their children enjoy a healthy and balanced life.
