You can find anything you want on the Internet. That is good and bad. It’s important to set expectations with your children about what kind of content is appropriate. By setting expectations and boundaries you help ensure your child’s growth is positive. While having these conversations are great it isn’t enough. Unwanted material is always trying to find a way to enter the screens in your home. However, there are preventive measures parents can take to reduce the chances of these unwanted materials from popping up in front of your children’s eyes to see. Here’s a list of things that can help:

Buying a router with parental controls on it

If your child needs access to your home WiFi to get onto the Internet having a WiFi router with filters and parental controls is an easy way to prevent unwanted web content from entering any device in the home. This is an easy way to protect all devices that do web browsing in the home. You can set up the router to block adult content, as well as block suspicious websites that can infect your devices with virus’ or spam. Higher-end routers will even allow you to set filter levels specific to each device and be able to lock down devices during times you don’t’ want your children to use the Internet, like the middle of the night while you are asleep. You can chat with experts from your local computer store to find the right one for your family.

Wireless Routers with parental controls – Best Buy

The 10 Best Parental Control Routers of 2020 – Lifewire

10 BEST Router With Parental Controls of February 2020 – Best Reviews

Parental control software

Having a filter on your router is great but it won’t stop unwanted content that comes through some apps. Netflix is an example. A filtered router won’t stop your child from watching a TV-MA show on Netflix. If your child has their own tablet or phone, Android and iOS both provide parental controls that allow you to set up what kind of apps your child can use and even monitor their use so you can keep checks on it.

You can buy software for your children’s computers to monitor and safeguard them when they use it.

Best Parental Control Software

Setting up parental controls on your child’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

If you sometimes just hand your phone to your child so you can do something in peace then iOS has a feature called Guided Access. You can set up restrictions that you can enable with a simple gesture before handing your phone over. Then depending on the restrictions, your child won’t be able to stumble into something you don’t want them to get into. One example is locked down the app so the child can’t leave the app you started before handing your phone over.