Parents have all the right to be wary of their child’s online activity. With predators hiding behind fake social media profiles and hackers looking for people to scam, those worries are entirely justified.
The counter-argument is that parents should give their children privacy. While having privacy is very important, safety is of even greater importance for parents. There have been numerous reported cases where a child has been tricked by someone who looks similar to their age but is not.
Cases such as these are instant red flags, and they are the reasons why parents need (and do) to monitor their children’s online activity, according to cooltechzone.
But how can a parent monitor their children activity, and how often should they do it?
One of the lesser talked reasons as to why parents monitor their children’s online activity, is because they can be influenced by someone into doing something they don’t necessarily want.
This is most popular with YouTube and other forms of social media; where content creators urge their followers to do stuff they don’t really want. This stuff is not necessarily bad stuff, but they can sway young minds none the less.
One of the most heavily discussed content creators is the Paul brother Logan and Jake. They are ex Disney superstars who left Disney in pursuit of personal fame. They both have YouTube channels with lots of subscribers – Logan Paul has 19 million subs and Jake Paul has 18 million subscribers. They are not necessarily bad people, but they do stupid stuff which teens and young children look up to.
According to familyorbit.com, parents can use monitoring software to monitor their children’s online behavior. These types of software have all the necessary tools to monitor both smartphones and personal desktop computers.
Software such as these comes with a host of features such as:
Mobile Phone Monitoring
- Text Messages
- Website Tracking
- Call Records
- WhatsApp Tracking
- Photo Viewing
- Address Book Info
These features help one way or another in monitoring your children and preventing any harm to them. Each of these features allows you to monitor every bit of online activity with great easy.
GPS Tracker
- Real-Time GPS Tracker
- Check-Ins from Your Child
- Location History
- Geofence
- Speed Alerts
These GPS trackers monitor the movement of your child anywhere around the world. All it needs is for the location and GPS settings to be ON, and the rest is up to the software to do. These features allow you to safely know where the current whereabouts are of your child, and it helps in tracking down your child if something goes horribly wrong.
Screen Locking
- Instant Screen Lock
- Bed Time Lock
- Dinner Time Lock
- Screen Time Monitor
- School Time Lock
Some software even has the capabilities of allowing parents control over their children’s smartphone’s screen lock. These apps can be used in multiple ways, but the most common use is to lock the phone screens during inappropriate times. You can lock your child’s phone screen when it’s time for bed, when he is grounded when it’s time for dinner to prevent him from using the phone, or whenever he is in school. This significantly helps you in ways that it forces your child to pay attention while at school.
How Often Should Parents Check Their Children’s Online Activity?
While we mentioned at the begging of the article that privacy is important, you much check up on your children regardless. The recommended number of checkups per week should be kept at one time per week. This number can be flexible and parents can even increase the number of checkups in a week depending on the children’s behavior.
Kim Marks 
Nicola Holder