How to use parental controls and other tools to maximise online safety in your home. All the devices that connect to the internet in your home offer lots of benefits. But you also need to understand the risks associated with these devices and how to protect yourself and your family. Parental controls are software tools that allow you to monitor and limit what your child sees and does online. Helping your child build good online safety habits is just as important.
Some wi-fi routers come with software that allows you to set up parental controls across your whole family wi-fi network. The advantage of this is that the rules you make are applied on all your connected devices β laptops, tablets, smartphones, even game consoles and smart TVs.
However, you don't always get the same level of control and monitoring that you get from software installed on each device. Or check out the products accredited through the Family Friendly Filters scheme.
Some internet service providers ISPs provide routers incorporating parental control features as part of their broadband products. Apple operating systems from iOS12 enable you to restrict access to browsers and applications, in-app purchasing, social networking, inappropriate internet content, sharing of data including photos and location , media streaming and online gaming. Find out how. Although Android has no general built-in parental control features, Android devices can be controlled using Google Family Link.
Smart TVs offer all the exciting opportunities β and the risks β that come with being online. Most provide some form of parental control, even if it is just a PIN code locking certain features.
