Parental Controls.
Sounds like something out of a movie about a WWII mind-control experiment gone wrong. The truth is, Parental Controls are a toolset that you can use to help draw the map for your kids to guide them over, under, around and through all these things. Some controls are well designed and easy to use. Others are opaque at best and utterly ineffective at worst. But they are an excellent place to start.
Rule Number 1 of Parental Controls:
They can't work if you don't use them.
Seems a bit obvious, perhaps. However, a lot of parents don't use them. Sometimes they decide not to, relying on direct personal supervision instead. But a Microsoft survey found the average age parents give kids unsupervised access to gaming consoles and computers was 8 years old.
The poll found that almost all of the parents (94 percent) let their kids use
at least one device (computer, mobile phone, and gaming console) or
online service (email, social networks, and the like) without supervision...
Computers and gaming consoles are introduced at a younger age (8 on
average), whereas email, texting, and social networking are allowed later
on (between ages 11 and 12). By the teen years (13), parents surveyed
allow kids to use all the devices and online services without supervision.
- Microsoft “How Old Is Too Young To Go Online?” Research Highlights
Other times, they don't know that parental controls exist on a particular device, website or app. Or they suspect they are probably there somewhere but are too complicated or just too annoying to use. After all it's a pain in the neck to have to type in your Netflix PIN code every time you want to watch an R-rated movie. But if you don't have to type it, neither do your kids. Keep that in mind the next time you hand off the remote control or pass them the iPad.
