The internet has become an integral part of our lives, making life simpler and allowing us to communicate with loved ones who live far away. Learn how you can set parental controls on Google Chrome to keep your kids’ browsing safe.
Concerning all the positive aspects, there are still so many life-damaging impacts of the internet. Therefore, striking a balance between your physical and virtual lives is critical.
However, many children and adolescents do not realize this, and as a result, they make inappropriate use of the internet, which may harm their lives.
The ones who have the most risk for falling into the online trap are young kids and teenagers, as they are the easy target for vicious online predators.
Other dangers, aside from cyber predators, include abuse, exposure to explicit materials, identity theft, threats, and even more. As a result, it is crucial for parents of young children to be on the safe side and use parental controls on all of their children’s devices.
As a parent, you should monitor your children’s online behavior. It would help if you were mindful of what your children are doing on the internet and the types of content they are viewing.
Then, you should also advise your children about what kind of content is appropriate for them to see and what is not. You should also inform them of the long-term implications of viewing porn and other objectionable Internet material.
Let them be mindful of the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between their online and offline lives. The children must realize that the internet is just a tiny part of their lives, not their whole lives.
If God forbid, you discover your child’s involvement in dangerous online practices; you can easily enable parental controls in Google Chrome.
Here are a few methods for configuring parental controls on Google Chrome on your child’s device:
Use Google SafeSearch
Chrome has an in-built feature to make internet usage even more secure. Google SafeSearch is one of them which assists you in creating a better internet surfing environment for your children to shield them from unsafe websites. Here’s how to enable SafeSearch in Google Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome on your child’s device, go to the address bar, and type https://www.google.com/preferences.
- In the SafeSearch Filters section, press the “Turn on SafeSearch” button.
When you enable this function, your children will not see inappropriate or graphic images in Google Search results.
Install Chrome Extensions
Using chrome extensions is one of the best methods to set up parental controls in Chrome. Extensions have a high number of features to assists you to supervise your children. There are many extensions available on Chrome Web Store. Two of the best ones are listed below:
WebFilter Free
WebFilter is one of the most well-known parental control extensions available in the web store. It has several features that prevent children from accessing inappropriate areas of the internet. Here are the simple steps to add extensions on google chrome:
- Go to Google Chrome, download the extension.
- After the installation is completed, click on the extension icon next to the address bar.
- You will be given three choices: block a website, trust a website and one additional option.
- Then, you can choose among them according to your requirement.
Web Nanny
Sometimes, there are chances that you want your children to have access to those pages but do not want them to see some specific keywords. For example, you may encourage your children to use Instagram but want them to stop seeing inappropriate terms.
In such cases, you can be a Web Nanny. You can do this by creating a list of terms to filter and replacing them with appropriate words. Or use Web Nanny to clean up a whole web page and make it appropriate for your children.
You can install the Web Nanny extension on your Chrome by following simple steps:
- Go to Google Chrome, download the extension.
- Once you have installed it, click on its icon.
- Enter the word you want to filter, add the word to replace, and click on the “Clean this page” button.
- The extension will remove all the words and replace them with your words.
- You can reset the words by clicking on “Reset custom definitions.”
Use Safe Browsing
Chrome has another in-built tool for safe internet use. With this feature, you can provide your children with a secure online experience. Here’s how to activate this feature:
- Go to the address bar and type “chrome://settings.”
- Scroll down a bit and click on the “Advanced” option.
- Under the “Privacy and security” section, enable “Safe Browsing.”
Create a Child Profile
To set a solid parental control on your kid’s device, you can set up a new user account for your child on Chrome and sync it with your email account. It allows you to monitor your child’s online interaction and provide advice. Here’s how to make a kid profile:
- Go to Chrome browser, and go to the “Settings” option.
- Now you click on “Turn on sync…” and link your Gmail account with Chrome.
- Once you are done, click on the profile icon next to the address bar and select the “Manage people” option.
- Here, click on “Add Person” and type a name for your child’s new account.
- A new windows bar will open in front of you. Now, you need to head to “Settings” and enable sync, as we have explained above.
- Once done, you need to link your Gmail account to your child’s profile.
Now, You can track your child’s online activities, like you can view their history, places, bookmarks, and other files. However, make sure that your child does not disable the sync function.
Install Parental Control Software
If you feel that Google Chrome’s in-built parental control capabilities are insufficient, you can use parental control apps such as Fenced.ai, Bark, NetNanny, etc.
You need to sign up for an account with any of the apps mentioned above, download the app, and install it on your child’s computer. Now you are ready to keep your kids in check.
Monitor what your child is doing on the internet by simply installing this parental control software on his or her laptop. It allows you to block, limit, and filter websites that seem inappropriate for your kids.
For your child’s welfare, you can even set time limits on such applications. Furthermore, parental controls allow you to keep track of your kid’s locations.
Conclusion
Parental controls are a critical responsibility for parents in this modernized day and age. Chrome extensions and plugins are also excellent to exert some power over your child’s online habits.
But with chrome extensions, your child can easily disable them. So, you can also set up a profile that will make it easier to get more of your child’s browsing history. And if your child disables the sync, it would need your Gmail password to re-enable it.
Hence, to keep your kids safe from all sorts of online dangers, you can follow the techniques mentioned above to add chrome extensions.
If you are not satisfied with chrome extension features and want a completely secured package to track your kid’s online activities, then you can use a parental control app.
Concluding, I hope you found it helpful and that it provided you with the answers you were searching for. If you have used any of the methods listed above or have any queries, please leave a comment below.
