Kids will be kids, and they will always be interested in accessing things that aren’t meant for their eyes. It is up to parents to make sure that their children aren’t being exposed to things they aren’t ready to experience.

The web is full of sites that are geared towards kids, including lots of free flash kids games, and when you need them out of your hair, you can be grateful that the computer can engross them for a long time. However, you can’t let kids browse just anything. Scores of websites are devoted to sexual titillation, drugs, weapons, gambling, and even scholastic cheating. Social media may bring them in contact with unsavory characters. There are predators out there, and many children are too trusting to realize that not everyone has their best interests at heart. Children can unwittingly share things about your family, like when your house will be empty. Or they could become cyber-bullies. They might discover ways to use your credit card without your knowledge. Or they might become computer addicts, wasting away the hours they should be using to sleep or get exercise. Teenagers, with their desire to carve out an identity in the world, are particularly susceptible to poor judgment online, and ruined reputations, dangerous behaviour and too much information put out there for the world could be the result.

Parents, fortunately, have ways to protect their kids from themselves. It all starts with you. It takes your commitment to online protection. It takes you to set boundaries. And it takes you communicating frankly with your children about what goes on out there. It’s okay to trust your kids, but you also have to trust that they are kids and as such, they don’t know what’s best. When they do cross the line, there need to be consistent consequences that are followed through.

Communicating is half the battle, but there are lots of resources out there that will allow you to rest assured that your children will have to get through several layers of security before accessing something they shouldn’t, and to let you know if they’ve tried. If you’ve bought your child their own computer, don’t consider it their property. You own it, they’re under your roof, and you are free to add on any controls you like.

Security programs for your computer are widely available, often from your internet service provider. These systems allow you to limit their browsing to family-friendly sites, limit their email and messaging usage, and keep watch on their social media networks for potentially dangerous or troublesome conversations. You can even have reports of their activities emailed to you, summarizing what you need to know.

If you’re worried about the content of the free online flash games your kids play, you can use a filter to block out video game sites, but set exceptions for those sites that specifically exclude games with violent themes. It just takes a web search for family-friendly games to put together a list of sites that you can personally approve. You can be sure they stick to free online flash games, and you can direct them to flash games sites especially for kids.

These layers of safety don’t fall into place by accident. Like any other parental duty, they take work on your part, but when the result is the safety of your children, it’s definitely worth the effort.

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