Mumsnet users share how you safeguard your children around digital technology in the home with Sky Kids

[EllieMumsnet]

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In this digital age devices such as: laptops, mobiles, tablets, game consoles and TV's all come second nature to many of our children as they are used frequently from a young age in the home. Although they can help children learn and play in so many amazing ways, it’s also important to keep them safe and ensure what they are viewing/playing is appropriate. With that in mind Sky Kids would love to know all the ways you try to keep your children safe when it comes to technology in the home and how you still allow a healthy/fun relationship with technology in your family.

Here’s what Sky Kids has to say: “At Sky, we care about helping to keep kids safe in the home. That’s why alongside parental controls on the Sky Kids App, we’ve also launched brand new Kids Safe Mode, where you can keep your Sky Q box locked in the Kids section, so when your kids are in charge of the remote they can only see and explore programmes that are appropriate for them. Wandering fingers won’t be able to adjust settings, delete non-Kids recordings or watch programmes made for grown-ups.”

Do you have timers on all the family’s devices to ensure that the children aren’t able to use them past a certain time? What about parental controls on your television? Or do you have kids safety modes on all the devices they use? Do you worry about what they’re able to access from their devices? Perhaps you encourage an open relationship with your children where you can all ensure everyone is watching age appropriate content/shows? Or maybe you use children specific apps on their phones, smart TVs or tablets so that you are sure they can only access things suitable for them?

Whatever the ways you keep your children safe when it comes to multimedia, share them on the thread below and everyone will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw.
MNHQ

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Parental controls all the way!
All tech out of their room at bedtime.

On a slightly different note, we moved the family PC into a busier room when we discovered the girl we were fostering visiting Christian chat rooms to make sexually suggestive comments and being sweary :O

I have frank and open discussions with the kids about internet safety as well as certain things that may be immoral etc and the expectation at home. They only have language apps and Minecraft as on their devices and must always ask to check the can go on the tablet/phone or TV and the devices are normally only on the weekend subject to performance or behaviour during the week. There are no electronics in bedrooms and any devices must be on in front of us with history checks.

Additionally we spend a lot of time doing board games or chatting or watching movies on a weekend together. Having friends over or listening to music together, learning salsa, soca , singing, baking or bulk cooking together etc. I don’t like the idea of having my preteen son and daughters programmed. There’s only a short time to influence and guide our kids before they are adults, so I want to enjoy that time.

I make sure restricted mode is on for youtube, full privacy settings on their facebook page, have a full anti-virus system on the computer. I have set up a separate account on the computer for my child which allows me to customise the security and privacy settings. Generally I allow them to spend only a small amount of time per week online and i keep an eye on what they are watching. We don't allow internet in bedrooms, only in the livingroom so we can monitor what is being looked at.

Putting parental controls on everything and checking in once a day on their devices

We use parental controls, and limit the time spent on ipads and phones. I educated myself too, so I could understand the technology, so many times I've heard parents say, "I can't be bothered to learn", and I think this is a mistake, as you may then not know if anything untoward is happening, or show your child what is and isn't acceptable regarding what people say to them, and I have told mine, they are not to keep secrets from us when they use technology.

We have parental locks on all of the devices in our home and although the older children are allowed to have instagram accounts, we check them regularly to ensure that they are not posting anything worrying and that they haven't been approached by anyone suspicious online

we have the usual parental settings on devices and set up with our broadband provider. My DD is not allowed technology in her room it has to be used downstairs in the living room. We have reinforced her learnings from school reminding her that if there is anything unusual on any apps/websites then she has to tell us. She is not allowed to use any apps/websites with a chat function

We've always made them very involved in discussions about online safety- what to be aware of, what to tell us about etc. They are really careful and lecture their friends now!

they all have parental controls and limited time on tech x

When my son got his first phone, one of the rules was that I had the passcode and could look at it at random intervals; we always looked at it together and I explained it wasn't to pry but to ensure he was safe. He was happy with this and my checking has luckily found nothing untoward, however you just never know so all parents should implement some strategy to ensure their young ones are safe online.

We're quite lucky in that our LO is not that bothered with digital tech atm . I know this will change but we'll ensure that appropriate passwords and filters are in place when we get there

always supervise and don't let them at all when young

Parental controls placed on most devices to avoid unnecessary heartache

There's some great built in functions in windows called 'family options' which let you set time limits, limit content and monitor activity. Most people don't know it's there. I use it regularly and it's great.

Rules -there have to be some rules around usage and I get to set the parental controls!

We limit the hours spent online and make sure we know what sites they are visiting by checking the history after they have been on their PC's

I have passwords on everything that that can be passworded! Also online usage only when I am in the room

We have a family Netflix account where the children have their own childrens profiles on their fire sticks and our daughter has her own ipod which is linked to the apple family sharing account so she cant download anything without us knowing and the same with the firesticks. We have had long discussions with the children to explain how we know if they try to download anything in turn they are very sensible and open with us. When they ask to use an ipad to play on we activate airplane mode and disable in app purchases which requires touch id of one of us to download anything. We also have them in the habbit of making sure we unlock the ipad before they use it to ensure we can monitor how long they use it for.

Only allow use when parents are watching.

My kids have to earn screen time by doing chores or homework. They get one hour a day supervised then the ipads get locked away in a cabinet so they cant access them! Everything is password protected for their safety.

Wi-fi password kept secret and switched off at night. Supervised use of devices.

Our daughters are only able to access their own apps on their tablets and need passwords to use anything else.

My DS is only small so we use the tablet with him and if he has it himself we lock the screen to one app or show,

My children know how to play online games, get updates on their favourite celebrities, find the latest music hits or chat with their friends. So it's very important for us as the parents to introduce some rules and conversations about online safety. We have set limited time of accessing internet for our children depending on age ( 12 and 6) and keep all under parental control. They are allowed to use tablets or tv during school week if this is to help homework and never during bedtime. We monitoring their internet access with apps and teaching them that in our family, no one ever keeps secrets.
My next step is to introduce Norton family which would be perfect to keep my children safe and increase their access with age.