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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Both my boys (aged 6 and 4) have Fire for Kids tablets and I have set limits on what they can view and download for their appropriate ages, which gives me piece of mind. :)

Check their search history now and again.

We tell them they need to ask for permission from the computer if they want to play a new game. Good behaviour will allow them to play or watch the TV

Technology has a real place and can be very rewarding. However, I have the password to my daughter's phone and the condition of my buying it for her was that she doesn't change it and that I will openly check it occasionally. I have a PIN on the media TV box. There are child restrictions on the internet and she doesn't have the wifi password so I can change it if I need to. We also have conversations about staying safe online.

I’ve got parental controls on. And I ban electrical devices in bedrooms and remove them at set times for each kid depending on age.

Make sure my neices and nephews use with supervision, understand time limitations and only have access with my permission

We carefully monitor what they access on the Internet. We also block access to certain sites and filter out web pages at the router level.

Make sure my neices and nephews are fully supervised, understand time limitations and access to multimedia granted by me. This has to be balanced by other activity such as outdoor play.

My daughter is only allowed to use a tablet for 2 hours a day - and then when she is in the room with us.

Education, and talks about what is and is not acceptable in the online world. The children have age-restricted tablets, which are allowed 2 hours of active time a day.

show an interest and get involved in what they are doing so you can guide them in the right direction

Using parental controls and passwords to limit access to inappropriate sites and time restrictions on access.

I don’t believe that children’s time online should be restricted, however I believe you need to establish a relationship with your children in which you and your child can share what they have been seeing and doing on the internet.

There are many ways to block and monitor the WiFi in your household. However these can be bypassed by vpn apps so check to see if your child has one

We regularly check his devices searching which sites he has been viewing and his messages. We also use parental controls and make him keep his phone downstairs every night (he is 12!)

I find it really difficult with my older children who are now at college , but my youngest is 5 and we constantly supervise her

i think the parental control features will be great for when they are a little older. My young ones like to watch youtube and I just make sure that I am in the room near to them so I can overhear it. On occasion have had to race over and change the clip due to swearing but it has generally been ok and they have learnt good basic laptop use skills!

Supervise them whenever they are on their tablets :)

Our little lad was getting a little addicted to Youtube Kids on the iPad, and was watching random videos.

We removed Youtube Kids, he stropped for a bit, now hardly ever uses the iPad, and when he does, he plays educational/memory games.

They need a password or my husband's thumb to download any apps and we are always monitoring what they are doing.

Little one only has the kids kindle so it's all good for now I'm more worries about when he's older

My DD has one of those kids Amazon tablets so all content is strictly controlled.

Supervised TV and tablet time, parental controls

My children have kindles with all the age appropriate apps on there, they aren’t able to log into anything with adult content

All technology is to be kept downstairs where we can see what the kids are watching. We have also restricted access through our main BT account, although this does affect everyone in the house, but at least everyone is safe!

Everything has parental locks with screens only allowed when either me or dad is sitting beside them.
We have a password protected parent user on their tablets for the downloading of updates and games, with a separate child user on each of them that isn't on wifi.