Your child may start using a mobile phone, online gaming console or the internet alongside their siblings or with you.  How you set up and configure those devices can help establish a safe online learning and play environment for young children as we build their critical thinking knowledge and skills.  

You can:

• Put the computer in the main family room. This way, technology use is a part of family interaction from the very beginning. It is much easier to start technology use with parental involvement and supervision than to try to introduce it later when they are ‘tweens’ or teenagers!
• Install the Hector’s World Safety Button™ and show your child how to use it.
• Ensure that your computer security is up-to-date.
• Excellent parental control systems come free with some operating systems, e.g. Microsoft Vista.  Using such parental controls, you can set time limits, and a ‘white list’ (a list of approved sites your child can visit), which can gradually expand to more open access.
• As administrator, you can create an account for every member of the family (with a strong password) so there is an understanding of accountability for time online.
• If you prefer, filtering or monitoring software or filtered ISP (Internet Service Provider) services can be used.  For most children under 8, filtering can help prevent accidental access to unwanted material, but education is still crucial. Children live in an unfiltered world, so need skills and knowledge whereever they go online.
• Check that the model of mobile phone is appropriate for your child. If the phone is primarily a safety device and an easy link to you, then internet access is not needed. Parental controls for phones are now becoming available, allowing parents to control the set-up of the phone.
• Be aware of the online capability of new devices or services, such as cable television.

Online autonomy
The point when it is appropriate for a child to be online unsupervised at home is for you to decide, based on the readiness of your child for that responsibility. The access can be expanded or contracted based on how your child handles growing autonomy.  Research shows kids who are not risk-takers offline, are generally conservative about risk online and handle the responsibility brilliantly. Given the number of places children can go online when they’re away from home (friends’ houses, libraries, cafés etc.), education is essential.