It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with children in controlling their Internet use. Sometimes they are just outsmarted. That is why we have listed below the most common tactics they use to be able to browse or chat on the Internet despite having parental controls enabled.
With the arrival of summer, young children and young teenagers have more time than ever to spend on screens. Mobile phones, video games or tablets will probably accompany children for many days during these months, and with this longer time spent glued to technology, the greater the risk is that they will enter an inappropriate website or application. Cybercriminals are perfectly aware of the potential that the little ones can represent to steal data from their devices or take advantage of their ignorance.
There may be hackers, scammers, or other types of malicious actors posing as minors in any corner of the Internet, and it is normal for there to be some concern among parents about not being able to fully control what their children do on the Internet. One option is simply to limit the hours of screen time per day, confiscate the cell phone, or activate parental controls. However, children and adolescents are very good at figuring out how to get their way, and they resort to various tricks to continue connecting to the Internet even when they are theoretically prohibited from doing so.
Below, we list the methods to connect to the network without limitations that parents or guardians should keep an eye on, and that the well-known antivirus company Panda Security warns about. And, as Hervé Lambert, Global Consumer Operations Manager of the firm, emphasizes: “Suddenly, a child can go from watching Peppa Pig to, almost by magic, ending up watching a video in which he ‘demonstrates that the landings on the Moon were fake’, that ‘the Earth is flat’ or the new diet to consume I don’t know how many kilocalories per day.
Accessing other devices
The first thing a parent may think to do is limit the devices their son or daughter accesses. We can prohibit you from using the tablet, let you use a video game console, and let you use a special cell phone that we have limited through parental controls. There will come a time when the boy or girl will be perfectly aware that he or she cannot access the entire Internet from that mobile phone, so he or she will try to use another one. Maybe you borrow your older brother’s, cousin’s, or friends’ smartphone. Or even her parents’, if she knows the passwords. It is enough for a friend to have a free cell phone so that they can share it and use it among several people.
Connecting to public WiFi networks
Perhaps we have limited the child’s devices by preventing them from connecting to the Internet, or capping their connection with parental controls. If so, the little ones could choose to connect to other networks, such as that of a neighbor or, above all, the available public networks. If they have their cell phone to entertain themselves this holiday while the family is in a restaurant or a shopping center, children could easily connect to a public network and use the Internet, while parents think that they can only play offline games and little else. They could also trick family members into lending them mobile data by using their phones as an access point, claiming that they want to do something specific, and instead take advantage and spend some time on Twitter or another social network.
Using secret accounts and incognito mode
Another strategy on the part of parents or guardians may be to give the minor some freedom to use the Internet, asking them for responsibility and knowing what their accounts are on social networks, so that they can be reviewed. However, if the child does not want his parents to gossip about him, he could without much difficulty create a new account with a user that his parents do not know, to be able to be active on social networks without them finding out what he is seeing or sharing. Similarly, children will know perfectly well how to use incognito mode or simply how to delete the history after each use of the browser. Therefore, if after lending the child the mobile phone we see that the history has been deleted or that nothing appears, we can deduce that he or she goes to websites that his parents do not want him to be on.
Through apps, consoles or video games
Perhaps we have blocked the use of the browser or the use of specific applications, such as social networks, forums, etc., so that we only allow the child to use certain apps, video games, or the use of a console such as a Nintendo. The truth is that many games are set in open virtual worlds where users from all over the world can enter and chat with each other. In the same way, seemingly harmless educational or gaming applications may also include chats or experiences with other users with whom the child could interact. Likewise, it must be remembered that consoles also include social media apps (for example, you can use Twitch from the Nintendo Switch) so they must also be reviewed, in parallel with smartphones.
Apps parents should watch
Obviously, social networks are going to be an example of applications that should be in the sights of parents. Specifically, and as mentioned by Panda Security, you should take a look at Kik Messaging, a messaging app that is gaining popularity among teenagers, as well as group chat apps like Discord. We must not forget social networks that show location data, such as Snapchat.
We would also have to control the use of TikTok, since it is an app with a huge variety of different content, both videos and live content, and many of them will not be suitable for children. Finally, the cybersecurity company also notes that Locket and Gas are gaining traction among minors. Locket is a widget that is used to send photos to a friend’s mobile screen, while Gas is an anonymous social network.
