While there may be a good dose of fearmongering around child online safety, the risks are still real, and parents need to understand them so that they are empowered to take action to protect their families. Cyberbullying, exposure to harmful and inappropriate content, and grooming by online predators are the stuff of parents’ nightmares. However, on the plus side, there’s also a robust cybersecurity ecosystem offering significant tools that help parents to protect their families.
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Whether your child spends time watching videos online or loves online gaming using their smartphone, tablet, or gaming PC, or gaming console, it’s important to know what they’re watching and how to help them safely navigate the online world.
The digital realm is rich with opportunities for our kids to explore, learn and connect. As parents, we don’t want to stand in the way of that. But, it’s also a Wild West when it comes to cybercrime. The 2022 Parent Guide for child online safety reports that 68% of child internet activity is not monitored by parents and 85% of parents are putting devices into their kids’ hands just to keep them busy..
“One of the biggest hurdles to keeping kids safe online is a parent’s lack of knowledge of the cyberspaces where their kids are active. Many parents sanction their kids having social media accounts without much clue about how those platforms actually work,” explains cybersecurity expert and GoldPhish CEO, Dan Thornton.
Some parents aren’t aware that the games their kids play have online chatrooms where they are engaging freely with strangers. There are parents who are unaware that recreational drugs are sold online to minors, or who think it’s impossible that their kid may engage with pornographic or suicide ideation content. This raises the risks that their child could become a victim, or even a perpetrator, of cybercrime. It also flies in the face of data – Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, reported in 2019 that 79% of internet users aged 12 to 15 years experienced at least one potentially harmful interaction online over a 12-month period.
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“As parents we instruct, guide and model behaviours for our children so that they can succeed and make a positive contribution to the world. We teach them all sorts of things to keep themselves safe and ensure they don’t cause harm to others. Today, this vital parental role has to include the fast and ever-changing digital environment. Our kids are not just citizens in the physical world, they are digital citizens too. This demands that parents take a keen interest in ensuring that they are cyber-savvy, and that they make good use of the latest cybersecurity tools that help to keep families safer,” notes Thornton.
The safest smartphones for kids
Giving your child a mobile phone for the first time can be daunting. You can’t supervise them when they’re at school or playing with friends, so there is no way to tell what they’re looking at or who they’re talking to. Of course, having a mobile phone can also be a very useful tool for your child, if they need to communicate with you or need to contact someone in case of an emergency. So when shopping for the best mobile devices for children, there is a lot to consider.
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iPhones and Android smartphones are great, but they give you unbridled access to the internet at all times, and this can be troubling for parents, especially if your child is young. To make choosing the best mobile phone for your child a little easier, we recommend considering one of these two handsets for children. They’re great from a safety and security point of view and will still enable your child to communicate with you when they need to.
When it comes to a younger child, parents can look for phones with the following features: Very simple controls, big buttons, very limited features, limited contacts, no online games, and limited to no web access.
For older kids, who want a smartphone, parents will have to rely on mitigations, like parental controls and screen time monitoring apps, to help keep kids safe online. Parents simply looking for the best overall option for their child’s first phone would do well to go with an Android smartphone device. These are the safest bet as they play well with third-party apps and provide more monitoring coverage for YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram. While iPhones are popular, when it comes to helping keep your child safe online, Android smartphones generally provide a better user experience and more comprehensive coverage for parents.
Nokia 3310
The phone that made phones popular amongst youngsters in the late-90s is back! A few years ago, Nokia revived the 3310 for today’s market, adding new features, a new design, and a better camera. Ideal for younger children, this ‘dumbphone’ has everything your child needs in a phone and nothing they don’t. It does have internet connectivity, but it’s 2G – so very slow. This means media-rich sites will be difficult to load and display. It doesn’t run apps, so no surprise in-app purchases on your credit card, and it has outstanding battery life.
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This phone gets the basics right; calls, texts, and plays music. It is as basic as basic can be and is available in a range of fun colours. Plus, it features a 2MP camera on the rear.
Nokia C21 Plus
The Nokia C21 Plus is a great budget-friendly option for older kids. Unlike some other budget handsets, the C21 Plus features a sleek design that looks more expensive than it is, with slim borders around the screen and wavy ridges on the back panel. The performance is the fastest you can get at this price point, and the cameras are reasonable enough, too. It is a solid and capable budget smartphone. Plus, with Nokia’s 2-year security update promise, your child’s phone will be sure to receive security updates for 2 years, ensuring their online data is safe.
In addition to finding the safest smartphone for your child, there are three steps parents need to take to become cyber savvy and keep children save any time they’re interacting online:
Be informed
When it comes to your child’s safety, ignorance is not bliss. Know exactly where they are engaging online through games, websites and apps on their phones. Understand those platforms, how they operate, and the risks to minors. Make sure your kids are only playing age-appropriate games, and don’t let them sign up for social media accounts when they are underage.
Talk to your kids about online safety
Open, trusted communications are your best route to keeping your child safe online. Just as you are in the physical world, be their first line of protection in online spaces. Educate them about the risks and the warning signs. Let them know that they can and should come to you with their concerns. Educate them about privacy and the importance of not publishing or sharing their personal data, which includes your credit card details! Keep abreast of evolving cyber safety risks and talk through these as a family.
Use the latest cybersecurity tools
A parental control app on your child’s smartphone or tablet is just one layer of security, and it can’t possibly mitigate all the online risks. The cybersecurity ecosystem for families is constantly evolving, and the latest tools include AI-driven apps that can alert parents to potentially risky child engagements with people and content online across multiple devices. This empowers the parent to step in at the moment of risk and ignite conversations and take actions that can keep their child safer online.
