Folks must up tech game to shield kids

14 March 2016 - 02:13 By Azizzar Mosupi

In a world that is becoming increasingly digital, parents are faced with the task of upping their tech game to protect their children from online threats. But experts say there are ways to protect children against the perils of the net.Creative Parenting expert and author Nikki Bush said parents could set browsers to "safe-search mode"."It doesn't allow children to search for undesirable content," said Bush."For older children, parents can make use of third-party on-device software, such as VirtueNet, which you can buy online. Internationally, a programme called Net Nanny is probably the best-known digital safety software."Kovelin Naidoo, chief information officer at Internet Solutions, said safety on the electronic device itself is also important and we should always install the latest version."When new software is made available, bugs and security concerns that may have been found with the previous version have been fixed and upgraded, so it's important to keep that software up to date," he said.But, said Bush, the greater issue was children's education around sexuality, which was the parents' responsibility."Parents need to be aware of teachable moments around sexuality and maximise on those," she said."We, as parents, set the stage and provide the context for how our children will think about sexuality and how they respond to pornography."..

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