Five Free Tools for Keeping Your Kids Safe Online
Want to protect your kids’ personal information on the Big Bad Web? You’re going to need some help. Fortunately, there are a handful of free tools that work inside their browsers to keep spies, snoops and nosy parkers out. Even better? You can also use them for yourself.
Here are five of the best:
Disconnect Kids
Everyone who lets the kids use an iPad should install this app. It prevents ad networks from leaving tracking cookies that can be used to build profiles of your kids. That alone makes the free download more than worth your time.
But Disconnect Kids also offers the clearest explanation of Internet tracking I’ve ever seen, complete with videos starring hand puppets, robots and lively animation. Most adults could probably learn a thing or two from them. You can also get the same cookie blocking (minus the videos) on your computer by installing a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Opera.
DuckDuckGo
When your kids use a search engine, it collects a lot of information — such as their physical location, their machine’s unique Internet Protocol (IP) address, and the things they’ve searched for. Over time, this can add up to a ton of data, none of which will benefit anyone but Internet advertisers and data brokers.
But DuckDuckGo is different. DDG doesn’t store search histories or record any other data that could be used to identify your computers. It also features helpful tutorials about what happens when you run a search on traditional search engines and a bunch of kid-friendly goodies for finding info fast. And it’s not just for kids — you can use it, too, via the website or a browser plug-in.
HTTPS Everywhere
There’s nothing exciting about this browser add-on, but it serves a useful purpose: If a website your child regularly visits offers a more secure encrypted log-on page — one starting with HTTPS and featuring a padlock icon in the browser’s address bar — it will force the site to use the secure one.
This will prevent hackers lurking in public WiFi hotspots from stealing kids’ passwords or accessing their accounts. Available for Chrome, Firefox and Opera.
Lightbeam
Less of a privacy protection tool than an educational one, Lightbeam shows in graphic detail how websites connect and share data about you behind the scenes. Visit just a handful of popular sites, and your data can be shared with dozens of companies you’ve never heard of.
Formerly known as Collusion, it’s available only as an add-on to Firefox, though you can use any browser to view a demo of it here, as well as a popular TED talk on it.
MaskMe
These days, nearly every website demands your email address and a password. But your kids don’t have to share theirs if they use MaskMe. This Chrome and Firefox add-on from Abine automatically generates a nonsensical email address (like af4302cc@opayq.com) and an inscrutable password whenever they’re asked to log in.
Mask Me automatically redirects any mail sent to the nonsense address to your child’s actual inbox (or yours). If the kid starts receiving junk mail at that address, just block or delete it — spam begone. MaskMe also works as a nifty cloud-based password manager, so your kids can easily access their accounts no matter what device they use.
Questions, complaints, kudos? Email Dan Tynan at ModFamily1@yahoo.com.
