Dummies.com: Relationships & Family

Potential Chat Room Dangers for Children

As a parent, you will want to pay close attention to the risks specifically associated with participating in chat rooms, message boards, and private chats. Consider the following, and discuss these potential [more…]

Family Rules for Chat and IM

If your family decides that your children may participate in online chats and IM, set guidelines for the use of these platforms and include these guidelines in your Digital Family Policy. Here are some [more…]

How to Disable Your Family’s Search Engine Personalization

Both Google and Bing retain information on your browser regarding past searches and use this personalized information to influence future search results. Both search engines can integrate social media [more…]

Help Your Children Distinguish Sponsored Search Results from Unsponsored

Knowing the difference between sponsored and unsponsored results is helpful for kids trying to navigate the web. Even with personalized search results disabled and such tools as PageRank and the Bing Best [more…]

How to Use Kid-Safe Search Filters

Not only do major Internet search tools offer filters and settings to protect your family, but a variety of supplementary tools are available that you can use to monitor and screen the search results that [more…]

Kid-Friendly Search Options

A variety of platforms, tools, and applications have been created with the express purpose of allowing kids to safely search the Internet. The following are some of the options for parents who would like [more…]

How to Change Settings to Avoid Pop-Ups

You may know from experience that certain sites your children go to cause pop-up ads to appear. If that’s the case, ask your kids to avoid those sites to protect your computer and private information. [more…]

The Dangers of Unknown Links

Certainly many text ad links that appear on sites aimed at kids are harmless, but potential dangers are associated with kids clicking links. One possibility is that the link is actually part of a phishing [more…]

How to Prevent and Report Malware and Phishing

Phishing and malware scams can be a potential digital danger to your kids. Phishing scams trick the victim into providing identifying information that can be used to do a number of things including: stealing [more…]

Signs Your Child is a Victim of Cyberbullies

Even with the creation of a Digital Family Policy, parental supervision, and safety settings in place, your children may still be the victims of cyberbullying. Keep a keen eye for signs that your children [more…]

How to Protect Your Children from Cyberbullies

Discussions about cyberbullying should happen in all homes, hopefully before an incident of cyberbullying makes the discussion necessary. However, for many tweens and teens, cyberbullying is an uncomfortable [more…]

How to Prevent Your Child from Becoming a Cyberbully

To help prevent your child from being a cyberbully, know the signs that she may be engaging in this activity online, as well as what to do if she is. Your children becoming the victim of a cyberbully is [more…]

Age-Appropriate Discussions to Have with Your Children about Cyberbullies

Just as your family rules should include different rules for children of different ages, your family discussions about cyberbullying will change based on the ages of your children. Depending on their age [more…]

How to Research Your Child’s Social Media Platform

Even though social media sites created specifically for children typically follow rules in place to protect children, you should research each platform before allowing your children to create an account [more…]

How to Access Your Children’s Social Media Profile Information

Maintaining access to your children’s profile information not only protects them from sharing too much or inappropriate information, but also guides them as they craft a positive, early digital presence [more…]

Should You Allow Facebook Applications to Access Your Child’s Information?

Consider the effect that the use of Facebook applications will have on the privacy of your child’s account information. Apps include popular games (such as FarmVille) as well as popular quiz-taking and [more…]

How to Customize Your YouTube Settings for Safety

One of the main reasons to create a YouTube channel is to gain access to customized settings, which determine the privacy level of your profile information and your channel’s content. These settings not [more…]

How to Use YouTube Safety Mode to Protect Your Children

Because YouTube hosts a seemingly unlimited variety of video content, take advantage of the parental control option, Safety Mode, which sports multiple features parents can use to protect their children [more…]

How to Use YouTube’s Privacy Options to Protect Your Children

When you upload a video to YouTube, you have the option to make the video private or public. Public videos can be viewed by anyone searching for content on YouTube. Electing to make a video private does [more…]

Help Your Kids Blog Safely

Parents supporting their kids’ blogging goals should gain a basic understanding of blogging to both guide their budding authors and also help protect their safety online. The following fundamentals provide [more…]