Generally, I’m against “experts” preaching about how you should raise your kids. We live in such a complex, evolving world that I don’t know if there’s anyone out there who truly knows the 100% best way to raise children. We all make mistakes, and that’s part of being human. But more importantly, every family tends to have their own lifestyle, and outside of outright abuse, there’s not necessarily a right or wrong way to raise children. I might catch a lot of flak for saying that but it’s what I feel is true. Mom blogs definitely don’t have all the answers either.

That being said, there are some great resources out there that can help you find your way so you’re not stumbling around in the dark. One of those is a guide I recently came across that helps navigate the dangers and questionable experiences of being online, particularly internet safety for kids. From ExpressVPN, it does set forth some rules that every parent should know, but they’re less like “DON’T DO THIS,” and more like, “this is a great idea.” They can really help you find your footing as a parent, which, frankly, is invaluable with the amount of information we’re bombarded with these days.

What are the rules in the internet safety for kids guide?

Those 10 rules are essentially:

• Talk to your kids about their digital footprint.
• Help them distinguish between safe and harmful websites.
• Teach them not to share personal information.
• Encourage the use of strong, unique passwords.
• Install security software and keep it updated.
• Set up a child-friendly VPN.
• Explain the dangers of talking to strangers online.
• Monitor their social media activity and be transparent about it.
• Teach them to recognize online scams
• Promote healthy screen time habits.

But it’s important to point out these are rudimentary guidelines as-is, you should really read through the full guide at its source. It provides a ton of extra information surrounding the context of these rules and goes into better detail about them directly. For example, it discusses age specific challenges, talks about using parental controls and supervision tools, and shares some more helpful resources.

In other words, go read it. It’s very helpful.