Children’s Day: How to make a laptop safe for your kids

A laptop is a great tool for entertainment and education for a child, especially in this post-COVID-19 world. Whether you are sharing your laptop or buying your kid a new one, it’s essential to childproof it. You can not only protect sensitive files on the machine, but also prevent your child from accessing any dangerous website. Today, on Children’s Day, here are five ways to childproof your laptop.

5 ways to childproof your laptop

1. Creating separate user accounts

2. Setting up parental controls

3. Securing sensitive files

4. Installing kid-friendly internet browsers

5. Blocking website access via the router

1. Creating separate user accounts

Does creating separate folders for your kid and renaming them as “Mom’s folder” or “Dad’s folder” prevent them from opening or deleting? No, right? If you are sharing your laptop or desktop with your kid, keeping two separate accounts with a strong administrator account password is advisable.   

ALSO READ: 5 things students should keep in mind when buying a laptop 

To add a separate user, go to Start, click on Settings, and select the Accounts from the Family and Other Users option. Go to Add Other User from the previous option and click on Add account.

2. Setting up parental controls

Every laptop has in-built parental controls, which lets you restrict the time spent by any user when they are logged in. You can also filter out inappropriate websites with the Reputation Management feature offered by Windows.  

To turn on this feature, go to Settings and click on Update and Security. Choose Family options available under the Windows Security menu, and a new window will open to give you access to the safety tools. From here, you can access screen time restrictions, website restrictions, weekly activity reports, and more.

3. Securing sensitive files

To double protect your admin account’s sensitive folders, you can encrypt vital files so kids don’t accidentally open or delete them. To encrypt your folders, open File Explorer and select the file you want to protect. Right-click on the folder and choose the Advanced option from the Properties menu. Tick on the check box with the option Encrypt Contents to Secure Data and click on OK and Apply to save your changes.

4. Installing kid-friendly internet browsers

Designed for children, kid-friendly browsers have highly restricted search results that filter out sensitive and adult content results. You can stay stress-free with these browsers as your kid won’t be prompted to any suspicious or malicious websites either. These browsers include Kiddle, SPIN Safe Browser, and Maxthon to name a few.

5. Blocking website access via the router

Children, these days, are smart enough to break down any barriers that come their way. They can often make their way to a website bypassing any browser-based controls. However, you can stop them if you block access via the router. Irrespective of the device they are using to access the websites, the Wi-Fi won’t let them enter.

To block your router access, type the IP address on your browser and open the Command prompt. Type “ipconfg”, and press Enter. You will find a numerical series like 10.0.0.1 or 193.167.0.1 next to the Default Gateway command, and that is the IP address for your router. Next, log in with your username and password, and provide your router IP address to change parental settings.

Follow these simple steps to open an uninterrupted world of edutainment for your kid without compromising your child’s safety.