Did you know that, according to a report from Yahoo! Safely, American children spend an average of 7.5 hours per day online? From Facebook to Youtube to the variety of online games now available for kids, it can be hard to pull your children away from a screen. If you can’t ween them off the web entirely, at the very least, you need to monitor internet activity to ensure that they aren’t putting themselves in harm’s way. Now, if you see that and ask yourself,”what’s the worst that can happen? Why should I monitor internet activity?” then read on. You might just be surprised about all the dangers facing your kids in cyberspace.
Three Reasons All Parents Should Monitor Internet Activity Among Their Children
- Bar Them from Accessing Adult Content
- Protect Them from Internet Predation
- Keep Them from Becoming Couch Potatoes
According to a study from the University of New Hampshire, at least 21% of children have visited a pornographic website for at least three minutes. Many parents might wonder what the big deal is. The big deal is that 49% of people believe that early viewing of this type of material can give children the wrong idea about how to treat women and what makes for a healthy sex life. If you monitor internet activity, you can protect your kids online from this type of material.
Internet predation has become a serious concern over the last few years. The TV show “To Catch a Predator” showcased the worst of what can happen when your children start talking to strangers online. Of course, online predation doesn’t have to be sexual in nature. 95% of teens using social media say they have seen somebody be bullied on social media platforms. Using social media monitoring software, you can catch a problem and address it before it reaches a dangerous level, as The Guardian suggests.
A new study from the Journal of the American Heart Association shows that binge watching, an increasingly popular activity whereby children and adults spend hours watching their favorite shows on Netflix and other services, leads to sedentary lifestyles. In turn, this leads to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and a slew of other health conditions. By monitoring internet activity, you can make sure your kids aren’t watching too much of their favorite shows online and protect their health.
Do you use any software to monitor kids internet activity? Now that you’re using an internet activity monitor, are you surprised at what you find? Sound off in the comments below! Ger more information on this topic here.
