Today, your son or daughter might like Apple products best (iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook, etc.). Tomorrow they might like Microsoft products best (Windows Phones, Surface, most PCs and laptops). Or they might be like me and prefer Android powered gear (mostly phones and tablets). So the first criterion for a good defensive weapon to protect your kids from online threats is that it has to work on all “platforms.” Some descriptive terms for this are “cross platform” or “platform neutral.” This means that the tool has to work on any operating system (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, etc.), and on any device (music players, phones, tablets, laptops, or desktops).
Selecting Effective Technology Defenses (Parental Controls) for Teens
When your kids are at home, they might use the desktop for some tasks, their phone for others, and some other device for yet other tasks. So whatever protection is in place, it has to work not only across platforms, but on many devices at once. This might mean a “filter” software that is installed on all of your devices or a “gatekeeper” software installed on your router, or both. I recommend both. The filter goes with the device and will work even when your kids are not at home. The gatekeeper only works at home.
Another difficulty with technology is that it changes incredibly fast. So whatever tool you use has to change in pace with the current technology. Otherwise, you will pay for it today and it will be useless tomorrow. That will usually mean that the company making your tool will be a large company that has been doing this for a while. A mom-and-pop company that is still figuring out their business plan will probably not be much help here.
Depending on how accepting or resistant your teen is to you fighting this battle for them, they might work really hard to find ways around the boundaries you set up. If you turn on a “filter” service, for example, they might find a way to turn it off. You need to be alerted when this happens. You might even need to be alerted when your kids have tampered with it, but failed to turn it off.
Even if you have a cross platform, filter/gatekeeper, current, and tamper resistant protection in place, something is guaranteed to get through eventually. This is where an accountability tool is necessary. It “knows” what has come in and “tattles” to you. It’s up to you to know whether the things that have come in are good or bad. But once this tool is in place, you’ll know a lot about what your teen is doing with their devices.
Solutions
Finding a single solution that meets all of those criteria, that is inexpensive, and that is “easy” to use isn’t easy. In my home, I use two products: Open DNS (gatekeeper) and Norton Family (filter/accountability). Both of which offer the option to use a free or paid version. Both are platform neutral, quick to update, and tamper resistant. In future posts, I will address setting each one up. The free versions will take you a long way. But if you opt for the paid versions, Open DNS is $20/year, and Norton Family is $50/year. Depending on your desire to have teachable moments with your kids, the extra features of the paid versions will offer you a wider “window” into your teen’s tech usage, and therefore create more opportunities for those discussions. With that plug, I’ll point out that the links above are not affiliate links. So neither I nor ChurchMag has any financial stake in whether or not you purchase those products or stick to the free versions.
[Image via Andrew W. Rennie]
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