Safer Internet Day is organized each year in February to promote safer and more responsible use of the Internet, especially amongst children and young people. This year the event is organized for the ninth year, and is held in more than 70 countries worldwide.

This year the theme of the day is “Connect generations and discover the digital world together… safely!” The theme encourages people of all ages to work together to stay safe online.

Clearly, this is a topic very close to us at WOT. Here's some practical tips what you can do to guide kids around you to use the web safely (source):

• Talk about the internet and dedicate time to explore it together with the child. Ask the child to show them what he or she likes to do online, and try not to be shocked or overreact if they do not share the same interests.
• Stimulate the child's creativity. Point them in the direction of the best online content to explore for their development (or just for fun). The child can learn and discover new sites, play games, write blogs, create websites. Stretch his or her imagination.
• Set up rules or boundaries together. When\Where\Why and for how long can the child use their mobile phone or computer? If you listen to the child and establish fair rules, then he or she is more likely to stick to them.
• Protect personal data and help the child understand that information or photos they put online can remain visible to everybody forever. Help them set up the highest level of privacy settings on social networks.
• Think about using parental control tools to automatically filter certain topics (e.g. violence, porn) and limit the time the child will be able to navigate the web.
  (You can use WOT for this purpose: Use the Child Safety settings and the add-on will warn of sites that are rated poor in child safety.)
• Avoid having a computer in the child's bedroom. Put it in the living room instead. It will make it easier to follow the child's web-surfing habits on a daily basis.

What other tips do you have to help kids surf safe?

Read more about the Safer Internet Day and see the video below.

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