safari-setting2

Set up Safari safe settings in seconds

Are your kids going to wake up to bright shiny sparkly devices under the Christmas tree this year?  If so, there are a few things you can do before it even lands in their hands in order to help keep them safe from unsavoury content that they would otherwise stumble upon or search out! With children as young as 5 now receiving ipads for Christmas as their parents try to leverage out the cost of new devices for their schools BYOD programs, it becomes even more imperative to protect their little minds as long as we can.

I have always advocated and will continue to do so, that filters and security software are never 100 % full proof and hence must not be relied upon to keep kids safe. Particularly as kids get older, controlling the devices becomes much harder and thus we must ensure we have taught them many other skills and behaviours to stay safe and responsible.  But with so many younger children using internet connected devices, it is necessary to do all that we can to help shield them from the content. Remembering that the average age a child sees pornography is age 11 (indicating many are seeing it much earlier) and the majority of this happens in the family home.

Apple now have in built software on their devices, however they need to be activated to do their job, so if you are purchasing an iPod touch, iPad or iphone for your child this Christmas, or in fact if they already have one, you might like to check the explicit results filter is switched on…it takes less than 20 seconds!

  • Open Safari and type google.com/preferences
  • Click on filter explicit results and scroll down and SAVE

 

  • google safe filter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See, simple! But as I said just one of the many things you need to do as a parent to ensure they stay safe.

I will be sharing some more tips on keeping your kids safe on their devices in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned.

 

 

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This Post Has 15 Comments

  1. Lydia C. Lee

    Thanks for this – I’m a firm believer in keeping an eye on what they look at, and so far it’s just ‘inappropriate’ boarderline smosh, but I wouldn’t mind doing this for ME. Sometimes I want to google things but I know the search term will bring up a whole lot of pervy stuff, so I don’t…this could be excellent peace of mind…

  2. Amanda @ Cooker and a Looker

    This is so helpful Martine. Thank you. I’ve done it on my phone, now off to do the iPad. xx

  3. Clare Goodchild

    Thanks Marty, will do it on Bec’s new I-touch. Great advice.

  4. Bec @ The Plumbette

    Its inevitable that kids will get iPads this Christmas. My girls are too young to be given their own but this is a great tip to keep them safe when they browse in Safari.

  5. Steph

    Thats a great idea, great tutorial 🙂

  6. EssentiallyJess

    Oh I had no idea you could do that! I did update the security on the phones actual settings, but then I couldn’t access any site without needing to have my parental permission. Even my own blog was considered unsafe, so I took it off. This sounds like a much better option.

  7. Grace

    Oh, this is so handy, Martine! Thanks for sharing this. I don’t care that my boys are only 4 next month – it’s never too early to get the devices around the house as safe as possible.

  8. Emily @ Have A Laugh On Me

    I never knew that existed, just done to my phone, and now the iPads! Sometimes the stuff I see them come across is not cool, I mean it’s not that bad but not for young ones really 🙂 xx

  9. Tegan

    I didn’t know that was possible! My little guy is getting an ipod for Christmas so I will make sure to put these settings on for it. Do you know if that includes ads in the apps? A friend had a rather unpleasant experience with her 4 year old when an ad for pornography came up on a baby game he was playing.

  10. Mandy

    Hi Martine,

    I just came here and did everything you suggested as my twins are starting BYOD this year.

    Thankyou very much, I would have had no idea without this. It was so easy.

    Phew, now I can breathe a sigh of relief.

    Mandy

    1. Martine Oglethorpe

      Oh thats great Mandy, glad I could help. Good luck to the twins on their tech journey!

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