Making your home internet safe

Back when I was in college and the internet was just beginning to be a real thing in everyone’s lives I discovered fan fiction.  So I happily searched up one of my favorite books, Peter Pan, and started reading the fiction.  Only to discover I had accidentally stumbled onto a… how shall I put this?  A romantic encounter between Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, and it was…. distrubing.  Over 10 years later the memory of the couple of sentences I read before I closed that browser bother me.  Internet safety is a real thing ya’ll, and it’s a challenge to set up protections for your family.

{This post is sponsored by Gryphon Online Safety, they are launching a Kickstarter TODAY}

How to make your home internet safe

I’m sure you’ve seen the statistics, by age 11 most young boys have seen internet porn.  Here in the Austin area, the news is all about a local teen who was blackmailed into prostitution because of an app she had on her phone and the communications she had.

It’s scary, so how can we as parents protect our children and keep the internet safe?

We can’t.  We cannot 100% protect our children.  It’s just not possible.  But, we can put safeguards in place.

1.  Warn your children you will be checking their mobile devices.  I am not checking my kids’ mobile devices because I do not trust them.  I am checking their mobile devices because I do not trust the world.

2.  Know what apps your kids have on their phones and tablets.  While Snapchat can be a fun way to see what your friends are up to, it can also be a way to bully kids.  Talk with your kids about these apps.  This is an area Gryphon Online Safety can help with (more on this later).

3.  Teach them how to react.  I’ve taught my kids if something wrong comes up on the screen of their laptop just close the laptop.  Don’t come get me, don’t try and turn anything off, just shut the laptop.  This minimizes what they will see.  This is another area Gryphon Online Safety can help with (still more on this later).

4.  Be a safe place to talk.  No matter how hard we try to protect our kids, they will be hurt by someone online, they will see something they are not supposed to see.  But, if you have let them know you are someone they can talk to, and you’ve put in the time to talk to them for silly little things like the best Ninjago character, you’ve earned the right to talk about big things.

5.  Teach responsible usage of the internet.  Talking with my brother the youth pastor, one of his comments is how often teens will say “I stayed up too late streaming ______” because they haven’t yet learned the self-control to stop.  I can totally understand that because my husband and I struggle with this, and we’re fully grown adults.  Imagine how difficult it is for 11-year-old kids!

Now who is Gryphon Online Safety, and how will they keep the internet safe?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

Gryphon Online Safety is a way to monitor and control what comes into your home through a router and a smartphone app.  The security features are built right into the router, so you’re not downloading something onto a mobile device or computer that can be deleted by accident.

To quote them, “Setting up the Gryphon router takes just three steps and a simple tap with the Gryphon app.”  I have to say, a lot of the other ones I’ve looked into sounded a lot more complicated than that, and my eyes started to glaze over.  I like simple.

Now that it’s set up, what can you do with it?

1. Say which websites are allowed.  I wish I had this right now for my kids’ laptop.  One of my hesitations in getting it was accidentally clicking on something they shouldn’t see, or clicking on an ad that downloads something that ruins their computer.
2. Controls when you can access the internet.  So, let’s say a certain someone watches YouTube videos for way too long because they got distracted… We’ll call that someone Ticia, not to name names or anything.  This would stop Ticia from wasting 3 hours on YouTube watching a strange combination of movie spoofs, stupid cat videos, and sewing tutorials.  Yes my YouTube viewing is that crazy.
3. You can work with other parents to find out about great websites for your kids.

The people behind Gryphon have worked hard over the last year on the design and the software platform and they have launched a Kickstarter campaign today for the final production of Gryphon.

3 MORE TIPS FOR PROTECTING YOUR FAMILY ONLINE

1.  Electronics are only allowed in public areas.

2.  Set time limits for “electricity time” (this is what we currently do, and ties back to my earlier tips, and as I said Gryphon helps with that.).

3.  Teach them about internet security.  Don’t share your passwords, regularly change passwords, etc… (this came up in our family because of the Yahoo data breach).