Simple family safe Internet tips n tricks

If you get sent something from a friend like a video or some thing that then asks you to login to your Facebook again, don’t do it.

I was sent something from a good friend and it might be legit but the video takes me to a Facebook login page (see below).

Anyone can create a page like the below, you put you details in and bang, someone can hack your Facebook but what’s worse is if you use that email address and password for other accounts like PayPal then someone else has access to your money.

2 factor authentication is the only thing that could save you if someone gets you login details.

This is another example of why parents need to be aware of the dangers of social media for their children. It is not harmless fun, even seeing this sort of thing can cause long term damage.

Schoolboy, 12, dies playing viral ‘TikTok su***de challenge’ The heartbroken parents of a 12-year-old boy found dead in his room say he died playing a bizarre TikTok “su***de challenge”.

It’s a scary thing giving your child a phone but along with the controls that I’ve previously mentioned, did you know that you can limit who you’re child can call?

1. Select ScreenTime
2. Select Communication Limits
3. Uncheck Allow Contact Editing
4. Select the option During Screen Time
5. Select Contacts Only
Alternatively you can select Contacts & Groups with at least 1 contact
6. Repeat step 4 but select During Downtime to allow contact to you.

If you uncheck allow contact editing, you can setup who you child has as a contact on their phone.

I’m not sure if it blocks the dial pad or restrict who can call your child so that might be something you might want to check if you have concerns.

Did you know that there is a YouTube for kids?

Normal YouTube has access to unrestricted content so your children can be exposed to all sorts of things.

TikTok is also unrestricted and unregulated and is not just a kids App. I’d go as far as saying that there are more adults on TikTok than kids and you cannot restrict the content that your child has access to.

Just the other month someone su***ded live on TikTok and it took half a day for TikTok to get rid of the video that went viral.

Did you know that every video you child posts online of themselves in your house can be seen by anyone? There are a lot of sick people out there, do you want your child and your house and contents on display?

On platforms like YouTube and TikTok you have people that are called “Influencers”. These influencers make a living from videos they post online. They make money because they can have 10’s of thousands of followers or more. Due to their large audience companies pay to advertise specific product and also pay to get access to their followers details so that they can do target marketing to their audience.

These Influencers are unregulated and you wouldn’t have a clue about what their message is and how they are “influencing” your child unless you sat their and watched all of their videos.

Do you really want an unknown wannabe teach your child?

YouTube for kids isn’t fool proof but you can set it up for your child and you can see and allow the content that is consumed. YouTube for kids is also more age specific.

Did you know that you can restrict the times that your children can use their iPads and iPhones?

In ScreenTime there is something called DownTime. This setting can turn all Apps off at certain times. Say your child goes to bed at 8pm and you don’t mind if they chill with their device until bedtime. At 8pm the device stops giving access to all Apps. You can set exceptions so that your child can still contact you and any other contacts that you allow them to contact during Downtime.

1. Select Screen Time
2. Select DownTime
3. Turn on DownTime
4. Select the time(s) when you do not want your child to use their device
5. Make sure you Turn On Block at DownTime

If you do not turn on Block at DownTime then the DownTime will only be a suggestion and the policy will not be enforced.

If Block at DownTime is not there then you will need to enable “Use ScreenTime Password”.

Are you protected because you have a firewall? No.

Firewalls are designed to protect devices on your home network and often times are not the weakest point in you home network security.

Just about every home modem has a built in firewall and unless you are an security expert playing around with it isn’t going to help you too much.

Only in Hollywood do hackers hack firewalls. Hackers don’t want to hack firewalls, they want to get behind the firewall to the devices on the other side. A virus or malware that is activated calls out from the device it is on and establishes a connection to the hacker and your firewall just lets the connection go because a basic firewall doesn’t understand what that connection is for.

The majority of home network breaches are because of Malware and Viruses. Most malware and viruses get into your network because you let them in. All you need to do is to go to a dodgey web site or open an email attachment from an unknown source and you can end up having your accounts hacked or personal details stolen and you might never know. Guess what, the hacker hasn’t even touched your firewall to get you data.

To avoid this the first thing you need is anti-virus software and you need to make sure you keep it up to date.

Some Internet Service Providers (ISP) like BigPond will provide you with a Cloud based Internet protection which also has a desktop client. Alternatively you can also look at Trend Micro Home Network Security which is a device that connects to your modem.

Cloud based protection works by filtering all of the Internet traffic that goes to and from the devices on your home network. Cloud based services can do a lot more than basic firewalls and can even seen inside applications and see if there is anything malicious and can also see if there is any traffic connecting from your network to malicious websites.

Trend micro Home network security protects all devices on your network and can also give you control over the devices. You can turn Internet on or off individual devices and through an app you can easily setup time limits and restrict content that individuals can have access to.

In this day and age of connected devices you need a lot more than a basic firewall and anti-virus software to keep your home network safe.

Remember you aren’t the Government so you you don’t need to spend $1000’s, you only need to make sure your security is better than the next house/person and hackers will skip you to an easier target.

The biggest hesitation many parents have when it comes to giving their child a phone is because you don’t know what the child might be doing on it or who they might be calling. Ally and I had this conversation and it is a scary proposition. I looked at apps that I could buy and load on the phone but they were complex and made apps not work correctly. I eventually stumbled across Screen Time on iPhone which is Apples native control mechanism.

How to block or restrict the amount of time an app is being used on an iPhone or iPad:

1. Click on Screen Time
2. Click App Limits
3. Select the App or group of Apps you want to put a time limit on
4. Select the amount of time you want to allocate. You can also give more time to different days
5. Turn on Block at the End of Time Limit. If you do not select this your child will get a notification and then keep using the app. Block at End of Time Limit blocks the app completely so in the case of Netflix even downloaded movies can’t be watched.

You can set up DownTime too and I’ll go through that soon.

How many people have you heard of who have had their Facebook hacked? Have you ever wondered how you could avoid having your accounts hacked?

There are some very simple ways to protect yourself.

1. Use a pass phrase rather than a password.

A pass phrase is a password that is made up of a phrase which might be a sentence from a song or book .e.g. We are the Champions my friends. We’ll keep on fighting until the end. That password would be the first letter of each word. WatCmf.Wkofute8

Who’s going to guess that? I threw on the number at the end because most sites require a number and the full stop in the middle is a non-alphanumeric character.

It’s not hard to use a complex password. I said that I won’t send you to other websites but if you want to see if your passwords have been used before check it at haveibeenpwned.com

2. Use 2 Factor Authentication

2 Factor Authentication (2FA) uses your password plus another Authentication method like an SMS to your phone or an Authentication app. It sounds complicated but it’s really quite easy. Facebook has this option as does Google, LinkedIn, EBay, PayPal and many other apps but you need to enable it. You’ll generally find the option under settings.

Imagine if someone hacked your password? If you had 2FA enabled you would get a txt message giving you a code. If the hacker doesn’t get the code they then can’t login. That gives you peace of mind right there.

3. Don’t click on random unknown links especially advertising in Facebook. If it’s too good to be true then it is. Don’t gets sucked in to thinking you have stumbled onto a bargain of a life time.

4. Don’t click on links from emails. If you are unsure of the sender then just delete it.

5. Don’t click on links from random SMSs. If you don’t know the sender then just delete it. You haven’t won anything but a privacy breach.

If you have any questions on 2FA or anything I’ve mentioned then feel free to ask them. If I don’t know I’ll tell you that too.

Have I Been Pwned: Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach Have I Been Pwned allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address has been compromised.

Did you know that on you kids Apple devices (iPad & iPhone) you can set the age limits of content that they can access?

1. Select Screen Time in settings
2. Click “Use Screen Time Password” (if you don’t set this your child can change all of your settings that you are about to make)
3. Select “Content & Privacy Restrictions
4. Turn on Content Restrictions
5. Select “Content Restrictions” and set up the appropriate age limits in each of the tabs
6. Turn off Password Changes and Account changes (failing to do so might result in your child changing your access to their device)

Warning 9+ age setting will remove the TicTok and Roblox apps. (we had tears with learning that lesson)

I’ll show you how you can limit individual apps later or you can explore Screen Time more and work it out.

I’ve worked in the ICT industry for over 25 years and I see a lot of families struggling with their Internet control and security.

There are simple free ways that you can control the content your children and access to on their devices and there are simple ways to protect your own accounts from being hacked.

I don’t sell any products and I’m not sponsored by any vendor. All of the tips and tricks that I’ll share with you are things that I use myself.

The first step with Internet safety is to never click on links from sources you don’t know so I will not be sharing too many hyperlinks.

What’s in it for me? If you can ensure your children are safe and if you can protect your children’s eyes from adult content then you are helping me create a better world for my children.

Too much damage is done to young minds from seeing things on the Internet that they should never have seen.

Let me give you some simple tools and tricks for safer Internet access.

If you have some tips and tricks yourself then please feel free to share them as I collate them.