2013 is fast approaching and so much has changed. The increase in accessible technology presents many opportunities both good and bad. Regarding the bad, we find that our children are now exposed to a whole slew of dangers in real life and online. Add smartphones and the vulnerabilities those present to the mix and we, as parents, have to step up the ways in which we protect our children.
The difference with smartphones is how prevalent they have become and how difficult it can be to monitor. Young ones can often be seen using or owning them whenever and wherever possible. With such a powerful tool in the hands of innocent naivety, proactive methods can do wonders in preventing undesirable situations.
Turn Off Geotagging
One simple yet important way to protect your family is by turning off geotagging on your smartphone’s camera application. This feature ties an exact GPS location to each photo, chronically where you are and where you have been. If you post that photo anywhere online (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr) that location will be posted with it. Do you really want child predators to know where you live, have photos of what your child looks like the very day the snapshot was taken, and even know if and when you will be out and about? I doubt it. You can always add captions with the location later but you’re better off safe than sorry.
Teach Kids About Password Protection
Another reason we need to be extremely careful is because children are children. They often misplace items and are not as guarded when it comes to certain things, such as personal information. The other day, my daughter pulled out her phone to play some music while with friends. To unlock the phone, she put in her password like she always does. What she didn’t realize was that one of her friends were staring right at it when she did so. She said, “I think I know your password now.” Apparently she and her sister knew passwords of several of their friends and their friends’ parents. Now being between the ages of seven and twelve, I’m not worried that they will be on a hacking rampage. However, it did alert me to the fact the code she uses is one my husband and I use on quite a few of our other accounts. Not good. To prevent this in the future, we had to have a nice long chat and are now more cautious in which passwords we use and where.
When your child/tween/teen has their own smartphone there are more precautions that can be taken. There have been many occasions in which my daughter received texts or calls from unknown numbers. Though she knows not to answer or read those, it’s still not ideal for her to continue getting them. I was happy to find out that NQ Family Guardian has a ‘contact filter’ to help in blocking these unwanted communications.
Keeping our kids safe is an ongoing effort yet it’s definitely worth it.
