Parental Controls

How to allow our children to use the latest technologies while, at the same time, protecting them against its harmful effects? What is the best solution to address this issue in a balanced, scientific manner without doing harm? What is the fine line between restricting the use and overuse of these technologies? And what are its consequences?  

No reasonable person in our time can ignore the importance and prevalence of smart devices of all kinds in our daily life and how they have become an integral part of people’s life. They are tools for social networking, entertainment, knowledge, and work and are greatly useful for everyone, with no exception, at all levels.  

It is no question, and it is normal that any trend has some negative aspects and sometimes even dangerous ones. Therefore, we must ask ourselves how to find the best solution with the most accessible ways, especially when it comes to children.   

The control on the children’s use of the internet as quality and time is important to everyone, and particularly to the parents and caregivers, and the concerns raised by professionals best illustrate what happens on a daily basis in households and what we see in reality is enough to cry havoc.   

Dialogue and persuasion: The only and best solution  

Parents can certainly use different modern technologies and software to block undesired websites or limit screen time. Such software are easy to apply to devices; however, it is of utmost importance to engage in a dialogue with the child and explain in a brief and easy way to him/her the importance of setting the internet use time and websites they can access.   

Through dialogue, you can give a clear and scientific idea to the child that overusing and accessing sites, that are inappropriate for his/her age, will cause him/her psychological, physical, and moral damage, so the child will become more aware of the importance of forbidding some websites and accept it and he/she will not get motivated by the fact that “the forbidden fruit is the sweetest” to contradict the blocking decisions by all means.    

Such dialogue must be based on tangible information, such as examples and illustrations, provided particularly by the parents to the child. Moreover, parents must mention how the bad use of the internet and the side effects are related, while showing the benefits of the good use of the internet. This would give the child intellectual incentives and motivations to understand the rules and automatically apply them without fear or evasion.   

So, the first step towards finding a solution and overcoming the negative effects of this trend, is for the children to understand by themselves how bad the incorrect use of internet can be. Then parents can avail of the control and time-limiting techniques.  

Available software: Tools that help avoid mistakes  

Modern technologies provide settings, software and routers that allow parents or those in charge to limit the time and load of internet use. Such software include, among others, Symantec Norton Family Premier, OpenDNS Home VIP, and SafeDNS.  

Some software enable us to set the functionality of a number of devices, by filtering the content and determining what is permissible and what is not. This definitely needs a technical experience in choosing the software and setting the functionality of the internet use, with consideration to the operating system in use. 

The software must be installed on each device and set depending on the child’s age and to choose the content to be blocked such as videos and sites promoting violence, hatred, or any sensitive content.  

Setting the screen time is among the other effective ways. Some applications enable the parents to develop a weekly schedule of the internet use time for each device, as well as to choose the maximum data to be used by children every day.  

Importance of Multiple Accounts  

It is highly important to create multiple accounts for the users of the family members’ household computer, because parents might watch a content on YouTube, for example, where related videos are suggested in the next times it is accessed as it is believed that the user is the same, when in fact it is the child’s turn to watch on the computer. 

Therefore, it is recommended to log out from the operating system when done and log into the child’s account, while ensuring that a google account is created for the parents and another for the child and inserting the right username and password for each account so that YouTube can deal with the parent’s account and that of the child separately and suggest the appropriate content for each user.  

In addition, an account made specifically for the children on mobiles and tablets is recommended to be used for the same reason. Also, The WLAN in your surroundings must be monitored, as it might not require a password, which makes it easy for the child to use it.    

Can the Negative Effects Be Prevented?  

All studies and researches proved that smartphones' overuse has negative effects on four aspects of the children’s and adolescents’ growth: Physical, mental, emotional, and social.    

Scientifically speaking, the growth of the child’s imaginative thinking at the age of 5 is very important; it comes second to the concrete thinking and precedes the abstract one and, thus, the daily overuse of any modern device for more than one hour to one hour and a half compromises this ability to grow mentally, because these devices give him the imagination, therefore forming mental images automatically for him regardless of what the child wants.  

Besides that, overusing these devices causes the child to feel lazy and lose concentration, especially in boys aged between 8 and 12 years old. This is due to quickly watching the images in video games on such devices which are then stored in the child’s conscience and subconscious, and thus the child’s memory keeps recalling them even after he/she has stopped playing, which leads to distraction and poor concentration.      

This also results in poor family communication and a decrease in social communication skills by roughly 65% of what children between 5 and 10 years old should have. As a result, rates of social aggression will increase clearly because the children are watching such images and simulating them to apply them to their personal life, while other children tend to be shy and introvert due to the poor development of social skills, such as speech and body language like hand greetings and body gestures such as smiling, among others. 

Moreover, one consequence of the ineffective technology is the “functioning autism” which is due to the children becoming attached to a virtual world and isolating themselves from their social surroundings, particularly in case of working parents who spend most of their time outside the home, while leaving their children to the modern technologies to prey on them.   

Conclusion: Raising awareness is essential  

All the above needs caution and follow-up. The child must not have the feeling that he/she is being spied on or that he/she is not being supervised at all. A careful balance and a high understanding are required from parents, so that children do not lose their trust in their parents when they discover they have been under parental control, and try to find alternative ways to elude control and thus accessing directly blocked sites.    

In the light of the foregoing, and since we want to ensure our children are safe online and not exposed to inappropriate content, we must limit screen times and monitor the content.  

Finally, we need to explain to our children and teens that they have a life other than the virtual one.