PARENTS EDITION: Online Safety

1. Apple makes this easy: parents can lock the internet down right in the device's settings area. Just search "parental controls." Chrome also has something called the "Family Link app." Google those if you need help setting them up. What these can do is control WHICH websites your child goes to!
2. The school already protects children. On school emails, children won't be able to get any outside contact: no spam. The kids can only interact with each other (which can still be problematic). Instead of emailing, I prefer to show kids how to share a google Doc for their peer to peer contact. They can "chat" in a doc, but also build constructive work.
3. Learn how to use "search history" on all the browsers. For distance learning, you have probably loaded Chrome onto your devices, as we are a Google school. All browsers will track where you have been and what you've been searching for. So a parent can look it over once a week and see if she's been spending 8 hours googling fortnite or teddy bears. This is an invasion of privacy and a breach of trust... I would discuss your expectations of Internet content up front with a child, and tell them that this is something you want to do, explaining your concerns.
4. You can also just flat out lock the device, so the child can only ever use it around you, when you know about it, in a public space.

1. Ask a child what they want to do online. You probably don't even know what 7 year old digital natives want to try out, because you've never heard of it before. Then, do it together. I'm a firm believer that video games can be great for our brains... but the first time I logged into Fortnite to see what the hype was about, I knew that this crossed all lines of what was appropriate in school [it's a manhunt with the goal of being the sole survivor in a death race].

1B. The important thing about playing their games is for you to discover not just what the content is about... but what kind of interactivity--specifically, chat capabilities-- the interface has. Does it have the ability to be played alone, or with invited, known friends? Or is the child consistently exposed to other players who are freely pasting inappropriate websites, soliciting personal information, and generally typing hostile and aggressive things you'd never say in your own home [all of which happen in Fortnite]? I know many families that might shrug at the content of the game, but when you spend an hour playing it, seeing what the real humans are typing might give you alarm.

2. Telling kids you can/will search their history ahead of time is a family decision, because this erases the trust aspect. Springing a "gotchya" on a child is an aggressive action. Discussing your concerns first and laying out expected online behaviors or warnings is conducive to keeping communication open.

3. When a child is given wider access to the internet, it's time to explicitly teach them about online social rules, online bullying, and handling inappropriate content. Here's a basic lesson you can use as a start. While our school is mandated to offer this (single) lesson once a year in 3rd grade, it's a great thing for a family to review.