There’s no getting around that your foster children will come into contact with technology when they’re under your care, but you can take measures to ensure their safety in the digital world. Considering the enormous number of dangers lurking on the internet, you must learn the tactics you can use to safeguard those in your care. Continue reading to find out more.
Keeping Foster Children Safe When Using Technology: Use Parental Control Tools
Most laptops and computers come equipped with Windows OS, with some pretty impressive parental controls as standard. For example, you can easily install limits on the time any user can stay logged in, and you can restrict the type of content they can view. To find these tools, you’ll need to navigate to “Family Options,” which you will find under Windows Security settings.
Computers aren’t the only place your child can access the internet, as they may have tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and game consoles. If this is the case, you will find parental control options within the settings of most devices.
Limit Account Access and Encrypt Folders
Whether you’ve signed up with fosterplus.co.uk or another agency, your computer is likely full of personal or sensitive documents and conversations you’d prefer your foster child not to see. To make sure this will never happen, make a point to read any deleted files as soon as you’re finished with them. As well as this, you can store your files in an encrypted folder.
Locked folders only work if the account trying to access them doesn’t have administrative powers. Therefore, you should set a strong password on your budget and set your foster child up with their user login. Using a non-administrative account will ensure no harmful access is restricted and that zero changes can be made to the OS.
Block Websites Using the Router
Today’s youth have a stronger relationship with technology than those born before 2010 — their knowledge of how devices work will leave their jaw trailing on the floor. Even though this can be beneficial in their future, it means they likely know how to bypass any website blocks you put onto their device.
To make sure there’s no way for a blocked website to be accessed, you should head into your router’s settings and block sites this way. However, you should ensure you have a strong password set on the router. For more information and guidelines on blocking websites through the router, click here.
Foster Children Safe When Using Technology: Install Filters for Emails
The majority of devices are logged into an email account these days, and we all know what sketchy spam mail looks like, and it’s certainly not for the eyes of your foster children. Therefore, to avoid any upsets, ensure you have strong spam filters active on your accounts.
Allowing your foster children access to technology is reasonable and beneficial, but you need to control the interaction carefully.
