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cyber safety/screen usage for teens


HypnicJerk

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I dropped the ball in 2020. I picked up work in the Covid response, it was full-time shift work. Both kids did school from home (yep, I'm a Victorian) and DS is in Special ed, so all my educational focus went on him and DD didn't get a look-in.


So some bad internet practices were established last year. DD moved into yr 7 and is a closed book. She asked to use a Social media platform. I looked into it, said no and explained why but I became aware she has downloaded it to her laptop, circumventing me. I'm also concerned about what she is looking at on Youtube though I don't have anything concrete I can put my finger on.


Give me your rules/practices/habits you have for your teens in your house.

Also any limiting technology you use like website blocking.

Basically, how do you manage IT and teens in your house.

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Kiwi Bicycle

I don't have teens yet but DH is an IT specialist. We have a commercial grade router and firewall and we won't be afraid to use it. DH can already turn off the internet to certain devices. He uses hack proof passwords. I suggest looking into upgrading you wifi router from the bog standard from your telco and having software to allow you more control from your end into how and what is being used.

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Seayork2002

We live in a small place so hear DS13's youtube videos ourselves so apart from the off swear word there is not much issue there, he chats to old and new school friends on Discord, he chats to child gamers through the playstation but again as a small place we hear for ourselves.


He only uses his mobile to annoy us and play games, not sure if Discord is considered social media or not but other than that he has no interest in what I think of as social media ie facebook, twitter, instagram


I hold all passwords and payments go though me, we have had the odd telling him off but generally nothing we have seen/heard concerns us......yet!

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Jersey Caramel

We use Qustodio on all devices - it is a subscription based product. It allows both content and time controls and alerts. I'm sure there are tech-savvy kids who could get around it, but it gives some reassurance and visibility of what's going on.

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I don't have useful advice but I just wanted to say I wouldn't describe that as dropping the ball. Everyone in Vic spent too much time online last year. You worked, you looked after your family, you survived. Kids/teens and online shit is hard, but not because you're bad at it - just because it's hard.

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I attended a cyber safety talk by Susan McLean recently. She was an excellent speaker with lots of good advice.


What I took away from it was that kids are smart and some of the best protective mechanisms are really simple and low tech. Physically take their devices from them when they’re not meant to be using them. Only allow them access to the internet in a communal area so you can supervise. You don’t have to be on top of them but they’re less likely to be doing anything untoward when they can be seen.


We have a no phones/computers in bedrooms/bathrooms without explicit permission. Our router allows for two separate wifi ‘accounts’ so we have one for the tv and adults in the household and another for the kids and guests. The kids and guests has a filter to limit access including websites as well as time.


We have iPhones so the screen time and downtime controls are used too. We have limited social media access for our daughter to 20mins per day between the hours of 5am and 7pm. She has very fast fingers for typing and is a speed reader these days 😆 We did allow more at one point but found it wasn’t healthy for her. She still has plenty of face to face time with friends at school, sports and on weekends.


Our teen son has been pretty good and not that into gaming or social media. He has access to it all but isn’t addicted.


I can not recommend Susan McLean highly enough. I thought we were on top of it and aware but we had a few things slip past us - like YOLO which is part of Snapchat and some of the messages I found on that were inappropriate.

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