Protecting Your Kids Online

Before you know it, the small child that once fit in your arms is growing into a young adult. As they start to use cell phones, laptops and iPads you may be wary about how to protect them without looking over their shoulder nonstop, or banning these items altogether.

Here are some helpful resources prepared by the St. Albert RCMP to help you get conversations started with your teens about being safe online.

Stay Connected Offline

Eat dinner together, ask each other about their day and simply go outside and do things as a family.
Many (not all) teens are seeking online connection when they are not connecting with friends or family.
Encourage your teen to take a break from devices.
Establish a family recharging station to keep devices out of bedrooms at night.

Start Conversations Early

Talk about online choices and what’s okay to post and what isn’t.
Help your teen understand why they need to post content without revealing their personal information (e.g. your name, age, address, school location etc.)
Remind them that online activity can affect school, jobs and future opportunities.
Support your child in making any online profiles private and turning off any location tracking on platforms.
Discuss how and why they should only add people that they know in real life. Those they haven’t met before could be posting fake photos and videos to get close to teens like them.
Ask if they know the difference between consensual sexting, online sexual exploitation/abuse, blackmail, abuse or assault. To learn more about the differences and how to explain these important topics to them, read the kidshelpphone.ca article

Practice Prevention

Keep computers and other devices in common areas in the home whenever possible.
Discourage sharing passwords for phones and social media platforms with friends. Sometimes people may pretend to be a friend but are actually looking for an opportunity to take things off a phone and send it out to peers.
Be aware of group messages and who is in them. Remind your teens to be aware of their surroundings in any images shared such as not wearing clothes that indicate what school they go to or share their location.
Turn off location services on photos so that any photos posted online or in group chats do not show the location and date taken to others.

What to do When Something Goes Wrong

If your child is in crisis and needs to speak with someone immediately, call 911.
If your teen has been negatively impacted by the sharing of an intimate or sexual image, or has been sexually victimized online, contact the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700, seek out their school resource officer, or visit needhelpnow.ca for next steps and support from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Online Safety Videos

Watch the short videos below for helpful resources and info to help children navigate the online world.

Talking With Your Children About Online Safety

Gentle encouragement around online safety for parents of young kids. Although our kids may not be online much at this stage, we can start to put the building blocks in place to support their safety when they do venture online.

Video length - 1:22

Talking With Your Teens About Online Safety

Gentle encouragement for parents of teens around digital safety. What are some of the risks and responses that we can all use to keep our kids safer online?

Video length - 3:13

For Youth: Keeping Yourself and Others Safe Online

As a teen, you’ve already received lots of messaging around online safety. To make sure you avoid the common shaming and blaming advice you often get, check out these bits of info and a helpful resource as well.