Internet Safety

Last Friday, the PA hosted a talk with Darryl Holcombe, Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office Senior Inspector on internet crimes against kids. Darryl was so knowledgeable and approachable and gave some great advice to parents:

1. Routinely talk to your children about internet safety and their digital footprint. Ideally this starts before they have a personal device to use, but it keeps evolving, so keep talking. Remind them always to think before they post. This Digital Citizenship site was recommended by a parent to help with this dialogue.
2. Be familiar with the apps your child is using. Download them on your own device and learn how to navigate through them, including parental control features
3. Common Sense Media is a great resource for guidance on apps and websites. 
4. Have your children use their devices in a common area of the house.
5. Think about investing in a parent monitoring program for devices. Some mentioned were OurPact, Life360, and Bark. There are ways around these, but they are one layer of protection.
6. Use time in the car together to have discussions about digital citizenship. You can use scenarios: “What would you do if a stranger messaged you either on a social media site or while gaming and said ‘click this link’?” or “What would you do if your friend said he/she/they met a stranger online and they want to meet?” Explain that if someone online is asking for any information or things that seem unnecessary, they should tell you immediately.
7. Consider having your child sign a Technology Agreement with specific terms that you agree to. For example, some basics could include giving the device back to a parent by a certain time of night (8pm) and making sure a parent always knows their child’s passwords. There are many examples online of Technology Agreements.
8. Cyberbullying continues to be a prevalent issue. Remind your children that it’s important to tell a trusted adult if they see/read any bullying online.
9.  Learn how to turn off map/location finding on things like Snapchat and encourage your kids to leave them off. 

Darryl was kind enough to share his email address in case parents had additional questions: dholcombe@contracostada.org. We look forward to having Darryl return to Saklan to talk to our kids about internet safety as well. Thank you, Darryl!

#SaklanParentEd #SaklanPA