Paradise Under Your Feet — Page 166
166 example, “ How to Password Protect Your PC ” ) to educate themselves. Numerous software makers such as McAfee, Symantec , and Trend Micro offer child - friendly apps, software programs and child - friendly web filters. But they a re no substitute for positive parenting: Parents should impart healthy computing habits, educate chi ldren about online dangers, and encourage them to come to them with questions about suspicious content, individuals or situations. Many popular devices and operating systems come with built - in parental controls, which can regulate access to the Internet , o nline shopping and even the systems themselves. Parents should take advantage of these features as a helpful first line of defense, and be sure to password - protect their settings (hint: do n o t use birthdays, first names or other easily - guessed codes). Keep screens out of children ’ s bedrooms and limit usage of connected devices to shared household areas , so that usage (and usage habits) can be monitored and regulated. Children must be taught that private information should never be share d on the Internet : a ddresses, birthdays, phone numbers, ages, locations, school names and other personal details should never be posted online. Parents must make children aware that access to personal data should be strictly limited, including photos, videos and status update s on popular social networks like Facebook and Google+ , by controlling privacy setting s. Parents should be concerned about the ways in which children can potentially connect and interact online. They can use the built - in features of software programs and hardware devices to disable the Internet connectivity or digital purchases, and restrict interactions to pre - approved friend lists.