Keeping Children Safe Online; An overview for Parents and Guardians
You’ve most likely heard the phrase “don’t talk to strangers” from a loved one or you’ve likely been the one to say it as a parent… (Depending on your POV reading this article).
Well, the same saying goes online. Multiplayer games are soaring in popularity – a common selling point being they simply allow gamers the freedom of playing with fellow gamers across the world, within a dedicated server. Meaning essentially, you’re playing with a bunch of strangers. Therefore, prioritising your child’s privacy and safety becoming increasingly important.
Standard security measures may not be adequate and will mostly vary depending on the device/platform your child is using.
Due to their inherent traits of innocence, curiosity, autonomy, and fear of punishment, children pose additional difficulties. You should consider these factors while deciding how to safeguard your data and children.
Roblox, WoW (World of Warcraft), Minecraft, Fortnite, Farmville, and World of Tanks are a few examples of well-known MMOs. Massively Multiplayer Online games. Most MMOs allow users to communicate, play, and communicate with others in real-time across the game’s network. Thus, keeping your children from all these risks is crucial for their wellbeing. Here are a few areas that need to be focused on:
1. Implementing Parental Controls and Restrictions:
Software and tools called Parental controls let parents impose limits on how much time their kids spend online. Setting up restrictions is also an excellent approach to stopping your children from accessing inappropriate content.
2. Talk to your children about staying safe online:
In an era where multiplayer games are increasingly on the rise, it is no secret that gamers will eventually be thrown into a server with unknown users to them. Therefore, communication and honesty between parent and child being of utmost importance in order to build trust.
It’s fine to set limits, restrictions and controls for their safety, however children also need to see that their freedom is not entirely constricted. The aim here is to be understanding and open to discussion.
Talk to them about the risks of playing online games, be prepared to listen if they look unhappy about something that occurred while they were using the internet and urge them to use caution when determining what kinds of online games to play if they want to stay safe online.
By becoming knowledgeable about the gaming world, game certifications, and how to utilize the privacy and safety features included in the games, parents can help to keep their child’s gaming experiences secure, age-appropriate, pleasant, enjoyable, and even educational.
Here are some topics to discuss with your kids:
- Which individuals of their family and friends are permitted to play with them
- Why they ought to just play online with friends and stay away from strangers
- Why it is crucial to never share personal info
- How to activate privacy settings to prevent contact with strangers
- How to remove contacts from contact lists or block them
- Speaking with you if something horrible occurs during the game
- To alert you if a stranger continuously targets them or if they experience bullying from other players.
- Why they should NEVER meet up in person with somebody they only know online
In short, being involved in your children’s online activities can guarantee that they get the most out of their time, while avoiding any risks that may pose a danger to themselves.
With that being said,
We’ll leave you with Parental Controls for 3 of the top Online Multiplayer Games popular with children at the moment –
- Log in to the account.
- Click the gear icon, and then click Settings.
- On the right-hand side of the Settings page, click Privacy.
- From here, you can adjust both Contact Settings and Other Settings.
- If your child is 12 or younger, you can choose Friends or No one. If your child is 13 or older, there are additional options for interaction with other players.
Parents who want additional control should go to the ‘Parental Controls’ section of the Account’s Settings page. Here, you can set a PIN and other account restrictions.
Users and parents can enable a 4-digit PIN which is required to make changes to the account.
Enabling Account Restrictions limits the account to only curated content and disables contact settings to prevent chatting.
Parents can see what their child is doing when logged into their account. They can see a list of creations, private message history, a list of friends and followers, and virtual item purchases and trade history. Simply navigate to the corresponding areas of the account to learn more: Create, Messages, Friends, and My Transactions respectively.
How to set up Parental Controls through the Epic Account Portal
- Open the Epic Games Launcher or the Epic Games Store website (opens in new window).
- Sign in.
- Under your account name, select ACCOUNT.
- Choose PARENTAL CONTROLS from the left menu.
- Set Up your six-digit Parental Controls PIN. This PIN will be required to change parental controls in the future, so make sure to set a PIN that is different from other PINs that you use and is easy for you to remember.
You’re all set! You are now able to select your Parental Control preferences.
How to set up Parental Controls within the game itself
- Launch Fortnite on your platform of choice.
- Once in the Lobby, open the main menu.
- Select PARENTAL CONTROLS.
You will be asked to confirm the email address linked to the account. If no email address is linked to the account, you’ll be guided to a web browser so that you may create an Epic account using your email address.
4. Set up your six-digit Parental Controls PIN. This PIN will be required to change parental controls in the future, so make sure to set a PIN that is different from other PINs that you use and is easy for you to remember.
You’re all set! You are now able to select your Parental Control preferences.
Parental Controls on Minecraft –
Since the migration of all Minecraft and Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts, both Bedrock and Java game clients benefit from increased account security, including the ability to activate two-factor authentication, which makes it much harder for intruders to access your account.
Also, Microsoft accounts benefit from parental controls that empower parents to choose what their kids can do in Minecraft online experiences, including what they can access, and who can they chat with.
Minecraft Bedrock Edition Parental Controls can be found on the Minecraft website here
Minecraft Java Edition Parental Controls can be found on the Minecraft website here
We hope this article helps!
Posted on 21st Oct 2022 by Natasha
