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Social media is an integral part of our lives and as a result, parents have had to turn to parental controls to help navigate the complexity of the online world. To protect children from the potential risks and hazards of the digital age, social media parental controls are now more important than ever. Here are various types of social media parental controls that empower parents to provide a safer online space for their children.
Why are parental controls for social media important?
Implementing parental controls on your child’s devices is a must in today’s digital age. Every other story in the news seems to be about children targeted by online predators or cyberbullies. There’s also a vast amount of inappropriate content online that can fall into the hands of minors, accessed through even the most innocent of ways.
Apart from the dangerous side of social media and the internet, excessive screen time can be detrimental to a child’s schoolwork and mental and emotional well-being. Parental controls serve as another layer of protection – second only to attentive parenting – that allows parents to navigate technology with their children and keep them safe from potential hazards and harm.
Popular parental control apps and services
There are several options when it comes to parental control apps and services; the key is knowing each option’s capabilities and your needs for monitoring your child’s social media usage.
Qustudio provides families with peace of mind by filtering inappropriate websites, screen time limits, and device location tracking. Qustudio is a top-rated parental control app with excellent reviews and great customer service.
Bark monitoring system offers comprehensive parental control options across many devices. The app allows caregivers to monitor their child’s online activities on tablets, laptops, and phones. Bark also offers a telephone designed especially for kids as well as a home device that monitors gaming consoles and other internet-connected devices.
For families with older kids, SecureTeen offers social media monitoring and web filters to keep kids safe online. As tweens and teens spend more time online, caregivers are seeking TikTok parental controls and ways to monitor what their kids are seeing and doing on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. The premier version costs just under $70 per year and in addition to general online safety features, it also logs photos sent and received across these popular platforms
Antivirus Leaders Provide Built-in Parental Controls
Some internet users may not have to go outside of their existing antivirus and security protection. Most of the major players offer some form of parental control capabilities, either included in the service or as an add-on feature. For example, Norton Family allows caregivers to set screen time limits, makes surfing the web safer for kids with advanced filters, and gives parents up-to-date reports of kids’ online activity.
Kaspersky Safe Kids allows caregivers to set the parameters for their child around age and maturity levels. In addition to standard filtering, monitoring, and reporting, users can set age-appropriate settings across three separate age groups to allow older children the freedom to surf the web in a controlled setting. And finally, McAfee Safe Family,in addition to standard internet safety settings, allows parents and children to collaborate and set boundaries together.
Tips for parents monitoring social media accounts of minors
Registered psychologists Chelsie Bodie and Caitlin Slavens run Mamapsychologists and are dedicated to assisting parents in raising emotionally resilient children. The pair believe that caregivers should be mindful of age restrictions and parental control settings on any apps or devices their children use. “Education is key, providing children education around social media; and the pros and cons around using it.”
Caregivers should also keep lines of communication open and discuss the content they find their children watching or following. “Explore what they are being exposed to, and what apps they are using. Talk about things they have watched or played. This can help build trust and open communication around technology use.”
It’s also important that parents and other caregivers monitor their child’s friends and followers. “Lay out boundaries and the consequences of violating those boundaries ahead of time. You can even include children in exploring what consequences could be,” Mamapsychologists suggests. “This can help them be engaged in the process, as well as, having open communication ahead of time.
