Protecting your Digital Scholars

If your kids haven’t gone back to school yet, they’re about to. That means school lunches, riding the bus and, of course, homework, are the norms again. And homework, of course, means that your kids will spend lots of time on the Internet doing research and potentially using online learning platforms to complete assignments. It also means your kids will get distracted and use the Internet for non-school related activities, though under the guise of academics. And the more your children are on the Internet, the more you need to protect them from trouble that can find them, as well as trouble they might get themselves into. There are three key ways to do that:

1. Parental Controls: Because kids are increasingly tech savvy, it’s harder to restrict their online activities with parental controls the older they get. But parental controls on Internet browsers can restrict the sites they visit, and controls on computers, laptops and tablets — increasingly used in schools — can do everything from restrict the types of content they access to how long they use their devices and the types and amounts of content they can download. Ultimately, among the best protections parents can use is having a serious talk with their kids about how to use the potential dangers posed to them and to your system by the Internet, a talk that should include limiting the amount of information they share through social media and apps.
   As your kids return to school, they may be on the Internet more. Therefore, the more you need to protect them from trouble that can find them.
2. Anti-Theft: People of all demographics including children are increasingly using mobile devices to access the Internet, and this is no more true than in school, where a smartphone or an iPad is an easy way to quickly research information. But there’s a lot of loss and a lot of theft that can happen in a school, and lost or stolen device can lead to identity theft. Make sure your kids’ devices are protected with anti-theft capabilities like those offered by Kaspersky Mobile Security. When installed on a device, it will help you can locate your smartphone, send a message to it, potentially take a picture of the thief, and, if necessary, it will enable you to wipe the device remotely to prevent data theft.
3. Malware Protection: The more your kids are on the Internet, be it with their mobile devices or your home computers and laptops, the more the many versatile malware threats employed by attackers today can damage these devices, regardless of their platform and operating system. Kaspersky Mobile Security blocks dangerous sites and defends against mobile malware programs and includes a variety of other essential security protections. Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2014 have been proven by independent testing to similarly defend your laptops and PCs against all of the latest malware programs, regardless of where your kids’ exploits take them on the web.