Can you even imagine a world without the internet?

The recent COVID-19 situation has revolutionized the way people interact with each other. The internet has become a medium of communication regardless of age. New technologies are continually gaining ground every day and are significantly impacting the younger generation.

With the COVID-19 scenario hovering around, the internet has distinctly impacted all levels of education by providing infinite possibilities for learning.  School going children these days love going online to play games, connect with friends and family, or find out more information for their school assignment. But there are more risks involved when school going children go online unsupervised.

Internet safety is also referred to as online safety, cyber safety, or e-safety. Like it is always said, "Prevention is better than cure." We have identified 3 main kinds of internet risks for school-age children which you should be aware of.

Sensitive online video, audio, image, and text content risks: Sensitive online content hits the headlines every day. And viewing this content by school-age children poses the risk of putting them in an uncomfortable situation. Parents need to educate their kids and encourage them to come for help if they spot something unusual.

Meeting an anonymous user poses risks: All strangers online can pose a risk to children. For example, the risk can include encountering people who pose as kids online. These strangers can persuade a child to reveal personal information on links shared via chats or persuade them to meet physically. It is important that we teach them to be cautious online and immediately seek help if it makes them uncomfortable in any form.

Contract risks: There have been many online instances where children have accidentally made in-app purchases for games that ran into lakhs and lakhs of rupees. Or sometimes, making purchases from sites which are prone to virus attacks that can enable identity theft or fraud. Teach the kids how to verify sites and keep the privacy settings on the browser.

Always be calm, and you, as a parent or guardian, should always be open to conversations with kids to build trust. Once the trust factor is achieved, a child will feel more comfortable sharing his or her daily online activities. Trust will keep your child safe online.

While the internet is a riddle of risks, we at Tata Play Fiber believe that it is important that all elementary school going children are trained in safe ways of surfing the internet. To learn about our best and most affordable unlimited high-speed safe and secure data plans, click here.

For any other specific information about broadband plans or internet service in your area, you can write to us at care@tataplayfiber.co.in or speak to us at 18001207777.