I like to highlight to fellow parents that unrestricted access to the internet is like letting your child pop off to the big city for the night on their own. You have no idea who they’ll meet and the dangers they might face.

Monitoring, guiding, and having regular open discussions about the internet with your child is essential and required. You have to teach them the dangers they face, go on journeys with them so they know how to safely travel on their own, and you need to check the journeys they made on their own and look for risks you need to discuss with them.

The internet isn’t going anywhere. You can’t ban your child from it forever. Restricting means they’ll go behind your back. You have to face reality and have a few awkward discussions around pornography, violence, abuse material, stalkers, grooming, viruses, privacy, and more. But making it okay to discuss these things and to keep internet use as something to be discussed openly and honestly is the only way you’ll help prepare your children to surf safely and to come to you if they’re concerned about something.