The internet is not a safe place for kids and most parents already know that. To ensure kids’ online safety, parents have resorted to mobile spy apps and other parental control apps so they can keep their kids away from online dangers.
You can block inappropriate sites, unsuitable apps, and track their calls and messages with the help of monitoring apps. But how are you going to protect your kids from the dangers in the gaming world? Most parents let their kids play online games unsupervised and that is where they go wrong.
To protect your kids from the online gaming dangers, you need to know about the potential risks as well as ways to keep your kids safe from them. Let’s learn more about them in detail.
Ways to Protect Your Kids from Online Gaming Dangers
Parents can keep their kids safe from dangers in the gaming platforms by following some important tips. They are discussed as follows:
Let Games Be Age-Appropriate
Before handing over mobile devices and gaming consoles to your kids, make sure they are age-appropriate. Most gaming consoles and mobile phones come with inbuilt parental controls. You need to enable those parental controls before allowing your kids to use them.
There are many games on the Play Store that may not be age-appropriate for your kids. Those gaming apps can be for adults only. Therefore, make sure to check the content of the games and play them before letting your kids experience them.
Stay Away from Gaming Friends
You need to teach your kids to stay away from their gaming friends. Most people that play games on the gaming platforms are strangers for your kids. Hence, your kids need to stay away from them. Any participant can join the gaming platform and pretend to be someone else. Mostly sexual predators disguise in the form of kids to reach out to innocent kids on the platform.
Kids, thinking that they are talking to kids of their age, start communicating with them on instant messaging apps and develop friendships with them. These predators can influence your kids and convince them to meet in real life. Therefore, be sure to teach your kids to never talk to strangers on the gaming platforms.
Explore the Game’s Environment
You should never let your kids explore the gaming platform on their own, especially if they are young. Kids can go on exploring the gaming platform and may come across online dangers. They can interact with strangers that turn out to be sexual predators or receive threatening and harmful messages from a bully.
Therefore, it is advisable to understand the game’s environment to see whether or not it is appropriate for your kids. You also need to see what kind of players come on the platform and what sort of games are being played there. When you explore the gaming world environment and find it suitable for your kids, you can let them play without worrying about anything.
Beware of Harmful Cartoon Characters
Sometimes kids may play a particular game whose characters turn out to be disturbing and offensive. You need to check that cartoon character for yourself to understand whether it is suitable for your kid to play with.
You can also look up for the source of these cartoon characters and also read reviews about them on the internet. If these cartoon characters are harmless, age-appropriate, and can be found on genuine online stores, then you can let your kids play with them.
Talk to Your Kids About Gaming
Kids can feel comfortable around their parents and also have conversations about gaming if you also take interest in similar games. Try to explore the gaming platform with them and see what sort of games you can play with your kids there.
By being on the same gaming platform as your kid, you both can understand more about the game’s environment and see what is in there for the players. Also, make sure your kids trust you enough so they can come to you if they face a bad experience on the gaming platform.
Do Not Let Kids Share Personal Information
Most kids are naïve and they may share their personal information on the gaming platform. Make sure they do not reveal everything about them on such platforms because then predators may have access to their personal information. Ask your kids to never share their photos, videos, and personal information about where they live and which school they go to.
Do Not Download Content from Games
It is easier to persuade kids to download malware content or click on links that claim to offer exciting games and new videos. Online hackers can lure kids into opening such links or making them download malware apps so they can hack their mobile devices or their home networks.
You can spy phone of your kids by using cell phone monitoring apps to see what they have been accessing on the gaming platforms and also teach them to recognize and avoid downloading anything dangerous from the internet and the games they are playing.
