How to set up parental control for youngster’s online activities

Most smart devices have parental controls. This feature can help reduce the risk of your child encountering inappropriate online content. While enabling parental controls, you can customise by setting age-appropriate filters to monitor and block certain activities.  

Parental controls on your Internet Service Provider (ISP) 
This can be the easiest way to manage what your kids access online for all devices on that connection. Go to your ISP website and check the settings there, you will find it in the menu with an option to choose devices on the connection.  

Parental controls on computer or laptop 
Computer operating systems (OS) offer easy, step by step ways to set up parental controls.  

Windows 
Windows Parental Controls help you to limit the amount of time spent on computers, games played, and programs accessed. Click here to set up the control.

Apple 
Apple’s Parental Controls filter operates in 3 modes: Unrestricted, Automatic and Whitelist. Choose from them to customise online activities for your kid. Step by step parental control guide can be found here.

Parental controls on smartphones and tablets 
Kids now spend most of their time browsing, chatting, and playing on smartphones and tablets. You can’t bar them, since these are also important learning devices. But you can regulate functions like in-app purchasing, social networks, app store, camera and Bluetooth access etc.  

Apple 
You can use the Restrictions feature to block or limit apps and features on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. For a guide on setting up Restrictions on Apple devices go to here.

Android 
You need to download the Family Link free app and set up parental controls on your Android mobile from this link.

Google Play Store 
On Android phones, you also need to use controls on Google Play store to stop kids from downloading apps indiscriminately. These controls help you restrict the content kids download or purchase from Google Play on your device. Learn out how to set up controls on Google Play here.

As parent, remember that while parental controls are useful, they are not 100% effective. So, talk to your kid about internet safety and probable dangers, it’s the best thing to do.