6 brilliant tips to keep your child safe online

The internet is a great tool for children to learn about new things as well as connect with others. But just like majority of the things in life, internet has its cons too. The results of not tracking what your children are doing online and what or who are they engaging with online can be pretty devastating. Hence, it is of utmost importance to keep children safe online. Here are all the things you need be aware of to keep your child safe online: -

1) Use Parental Control apps and help your child with passwords: There are many apps and browser extensions that help you track your child's online activities. Make sure to install them on their child's gadget to be aware of how they are engaging in online activities. Furthermore, one thing that not only kids but us parents need as well is to have a great password for our various accounts. Help your child setup a strong password whenever they create an account.

2) Teach your children about online privacy: From geo-tagging on Facebook images to regular websites collecting data through cookies, it's very important for parents and eventually children to know about what data is being collected from them by different websites. Kids should be taught about online privacy and its importance.

3) Connecting with strangers: When we newly join a social network, request from strangers might seem delightful but these strangers can have hideous objectives for connecting with unknown people. Hence tell your children that it should be a complete no-no when it comes to accepting friends requests from strangers.

4) Have conversations: While tracking and everything is fine, it's a very good idea to just sit with your child and ask him/her about what they do online, what are they learning and if there is anything worrisome they came across. Be friendly and accepting when it comes to having such conversation because children might end up lying if they don't trust you enough.

5) Keep yourself updated: It's very important for us parents to be constantly aware of what apps are currently trending and are being used by the younger generation. Furthermore, with the aim of smartening your children, keep them updated about any safety or privacy issues doing the rounds. It's not a bad idea to keep an eye on what your child is posting especially when they are very young.

6) Set up rules: From websites that the child can visit, to where and how he/she accesses internet to how long they can access it for, it's great to set up rules about all these things beforehand.

Your child's privacy is as important as yours. While some children might find it a bit annoying that their parents are monitoring their usage, it's important to know that the annoyance is not above your child's safety online.

This simple yet unknown thing can help your kid succeed in school

One of the most valuable things parents can give their child is time. Involving themselves in different domains of a child's life can do wonders for the child. Be in the form of playing with them or simply sitting with them and listening to them, the amount of time we give our children and the way we spend it with children can effect them in numerous ways. For good academic performance and well-being of the child, parental involvement is very necessary. But there is one more factor, recently discovered in a new research that can help your child succeed in school.

This new research done at the University of Missouri-Columbia suggests that how teachers perceive parental involvement in a child's academic life effects the performance of the child at school.

To understand the academic performance and behavior of a student with regards to the relationship between teachers and parents and the teacher's understanding of parent's involvement in the child's life, researchers observed 1800 students and 100 teachers. A professional development program meant to develop the effective relationship between students, parents and the teachers was created and teachers were randomly assigned to the program. The program also aimed to improve the classroom management skills of the teachers. At the beginning and end of the academic year, teachers were also asked to complete surveys about parents and students.

Keith Herman, the lead researcher and a professor in the MU college of education and his team found something remarkable. Children of parents that were perceived as being more involved in their child's academic life by teachers exhibited better academic and social performance.

"If a teacher has a good relationship with a student's parents or perceives that those parents are positively engaged in their child's education, that teacher may be more likely to give extra attention or go the extra mile for that student. If the same teacher perceives another child's parents to be uninvolved or to have a negative influence on the child's education, it likely will affect how the teacher interacts with both the child and the parent,”  explained Herman in the press release. for the research that will be published in School Psychology Quarterly and the Journal of School Psychology. (Source )

The report not only reflects the importance of having good involvement in your child's life but also having the great relationship with the teachers. We often shower our children with amazing gifts but forget to give them the most important asset they need - time. This scientific research hopefully will encourage parents to understand the value of giving more time to their children.