Ways to Protect Your Children & Your Security On The Computer

My daughter has asked us to give her a computer that she can have in her room. She said she wants to chat with her friends on-line. I was sort of shocked because she’s in first grade. Are first graders really on-line already? We told her that she can use the family computer but she’s going to be supervised. I guess I have to face that fact that Kids are now growing up in the digital age where they are on computers and mobile devices earlier, it is important that we teach our kids good computer security practices early.

We use Windows 8.1 and with Windows we are able to set up children’s accounts and each child has their own account. In this account we can set permissions on what they are able to do. Which games they can play and what websites they can view are completely under our control. Plus we receive a weekly report on what they do. I love this feature.

Now, perhaps you don’t have Windows 8 or higher and want to know how to protect your children. With constant security breaches in the news, it is important to teach your family the importance of being safe online and keeping devices secure.  VP of Marketing for Siber Systems, creators of password management software RoboForm, and Father, Bill Carey, can offer some advice and tips for practices that can benefit your family’s younger computer users and I asked him to share a few with us.

· When you’re done with using a website, log off and close your browser. This will prevent others from gaining access to your account.

· Create passwords that are at least 6 to 8 characters long!

· Create passwords with combinations of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters.

· Try the ‘First Letter’ method when creating new passwords. Take the first letter of your favorite expression, lyric, poem or movie, etc, and put them together in a creative way. For example: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star would become TTLS.

· Don’t choose or change your passwords on a public computer or in a public place such as a café or a library.

· Avoid logging into websites on publically used computers such as library computers or Internet Café computers.