Parental controls in an uncontrollable world

Parents are faced with difficult choices when it comes to protecting young, impressionable minds from the darker corners of the Internet. Here are a few strategies and tools you can use to keep your kids safe while encouraging them to embrace technology skill building:

• Problem solving vs. Consumption: Teach your child the difference between consuming entertainment like videos, music and games online and using the Internet as a discovery, research and problem-solving tool. This helps them keep their usage in perspective.

• Walk the walk: Modeling good technology behavior is itself a way to protect a child from overuse or misuse in the long run. Engage with the family, not the phone, whenever possible.

• Use protection tools: Filter wide sections of the web from being able to be accessed without special permission using tools like Opendns.com or Kaspersky Internet Security.

• Mobile devices like Android, Kindle and iPhone have built in parental controls that allow you to control what a child can access or download and set time limits for usage.

• Monitoring tools like MinorMonitor and SafeEyes can keep track of your child's usage and keep you aware of their interactions on social media, too.

• Links Technology Solutions understands the changing landscape of Information Technology. Let us worry about your IT and Online Marketing needs so you can focus on your business. Call at (847) 496-0296 or visit www.linkstechnology.com.