The internet is a great place for children to learn and explore their interests and to widen their knowledge horizons, but there are a few things that could be harmful to your children if their browsers are not monitored properly.
One of the most important things to do before you allow your child to use a computer independently is to make sure the content they will come across is free of any harmful content such as pornography, gambling sites, violence, or other inappropriate materials.
Nowadays, children are encouraged to do their own research online to develop their skills and to learn more about what they find exciting. However, the internet can be quite scary for little ones. As a parent, you have a huge responsibility of monitoring the type of content your children watch, listen to, or read.
Luckily, you can now download parental control software like K9 Web Protection on their devices. In this blog post, we walk you through how to set up parental control apps on your children’s phones to keep tabs on your child’s activities online.
You will also learn the different ways you can configure the parental controls in Google chrome to make sure that your child is browsing the internet safely.
What is Safe Search for kids?
Safe Search Kids is a customized search engine empowered by Google. It allows your children to surf the internet safely without worrying about any harmful content coming their way by mistake. Using the Safe Search engine with filtering extensions to your child’s browser will allow you to protect them from any potentially harmful content.
How to Set Parental Controls on Google Chrome Browser?
The internet is full of inappropriate content for younger children. The scary part is, they are all accessible, and not many harmful websites ask for age verification. On the bright side, there are some ways that you can set parental controls on your children’s google chrome browser to make sure they surf the internet safely.
Enable Google SafeSearch
Google SafeSearch is a feature that you can find in the preferences settings. When this feature is activated, your children will not be able to see any adult or inappropriate content in their google search results. This feature does not give 100% accurate results. However, it keeps most of the violent and inappropriate content locked from your children’s reach.
To turn on this feature, follow the next steps, using your child’s computer to open the Google Chrome browser:
- Go to https://www.google.com/preferences
- Find SafeSearch filters section
- Click “Turn on SafeSearch”
- Create a Child Profile
Parents find this to be the most effective method to maintain their children’s internet-safe browsing. This feature allows you to monitor your children’s browsing activity on any device of yours. You can check their location, history, bookmarks, and basically everything else!
The best way to do this is by creating a separate user account for your child on the Google Chrome browser and then sync it to your own user account. Here are the steps to setting up a child profile on Chrome:
- Open your Google Chrome browser and go to “Settings”. You can find it by clicking on the three dots in the upper-right corner of the page.
- Click on “Turn on Sync” and connect your Chrome to your Gmail account.
- Click on the Profile icon right next to the address bar, then select “Manage People”.
- Click on ” Add Person” and enter your child’s information (name and picture)
- For the final step, you will find a new window opening in front of you once the profile is created. From there, go to settings, and turn on sync (as explained above)
Monitoring your children’s activity online by linking your Gmail account to your Child’s profile works more effectively when your child is not using the same device you are using, as they can easily turn off sync from their settings. This way they can have their own device and it still be safe for them to use when you are not watching.
Install Chrome Extensions
Another way to set up parental controls on your child’s computer is the chrome extensions. These extensions can help you as a parent to supervise your children’s online activity more effectively. Each extension has different features, you can choose the most suitable one and install it into your child’s account. You can find plenty of different extensions on Chrome Web Store. The most popular extensions parents use for their children’s online protection are Web Nanny and WebFilter Free. You can also find a lot more extensions in the store to choose from.
Enable Safe Browsing
Safe browsing is a built-in feature from Google Chrome that allows you to provide your children with a safer browsing experience. However, keep in mind that this feature will not prevent your children from opening websites on their own. To enable this feature, follow the next steps:
- Open your Google Chrome and go to “Settings”
- Scroll down till you see the option “Advanced”
- Find the “Privacy and Security” section
- Click on “Enable Safe Browsing”
Install Parental Control Software
Some parental control apps such as SecureTeen can also be very helpful when it comes to controlling and monitoring your child’s device use on the internet. This parental control helps you filter, restrict, and block the websites you see unsuitable for your children.
You also get the option to set a time limit on certain applications for your child’s safety. Additionally, it helps you monitor your child’s online activity, track their phone calls, text messages, their location, social media accounts, and online browsing history.
Best Google Chrome Alternative Kid-Friendly Browsers
Luckily, there are plenty of parental control apps and features that you can add to your children’s Google Chrome browser. If you are looking into more options to secure browsing the internet for your children, here are some of the best browsers designed for children’s safe internet use.
Pikluk Web Browser
Pikluk web browser is designed for children who like to use email and web search. This browser allows parents to set the websites they want their kids to be able to see and browse while restricting and blocking their access to other websites.
One of its great features is the parent dashboard, which the parents can use remotely to control the browsing. The Pikluk browser interface is designed to show your children the allowed content only, and completely blocks the child’s access to the device settings.
Kidoz Web Browser
Kidoz is a web browser designed for children to discover and browse content online safely. This platform is based on a COPPA-compliant learning tech that analyzes your child’s usage and recommends relevant content based on their interests and usage behavior. Parents can download the app from the Google play store and install it on their children’s devices to allow them to surf and explore the internet safely and independently.
ZAC Web Browser
ZAC web browser is designed for teenagers and children with autism spectrum disorders, PDD, and PDD-NOS. As children with autism show impairments in social interactions and communications, they also display repetitive behavior and restricted interests, which could make the regular browsing experience quite overwhelming. The ZAC web browser allows fewer user controls and blocks access to many of the websites to make the browsing experience simpler for autistic children.
Final Thoughts
Parents should always be able to control their children’s internet access to make sure they do not see or read anything that is unsuitable for their age. Chrome settings and parental control apps are very helpful when it comes to creating a safe browsing environment for your children.
