Parents know best when it comes to Net safety

The first step we've taken is to supervise her when there's any device at hand. Our little one is still far too young to surf online by herself in any case.

I remember it vividly, the screaming and the crying. As a parent of a toddler, I'm used to my fair share of tears and tantrums. But this experience was different. It wasn't my daughter who was upset, but rather my wife. She'd just watched a video exposing some of the horrors that children have gone through when online.
While I won't delve further into the video and its subject matter, becoming a parent for the first time has transformed how I feel about the internet. As a digital native myself with a degree in information technology, I've always felt at ease when online.
However, the increasing number of incidents of cyberbullying, of excessive violence and other harmful material, of grooming, and of content on social media that isn't appropriate for children is concerning. Just as worrying is the ease with which today's toddlers and young children, many of whom have been raised using tablets or smartphones, can access this content. I'm not easily shaken, and neither is my wife, but we're determined to raise our daughter as a digital native, in other words as a person who is confident around technology and digital, and in an environment which we feel is safe and secure.
The first step we've taken is to supervise her when there's any device at hand. Our little one is still far too young to surf online by herself in any case. This will be different in a year or so, and we want to be with her when she starts to learn about the internet, what she can do online and why certain sites and topics are not to be accessed.
With many children more adept at using online devices than their parents, we know there will be a time when she will have access to the internet outside the safety of our own home (and the age at which children start to use the internet is continually dropping). I want her to be aware of the dangers and what she should look out for. In the same way that a generation ago I and my wife were told to shout out loud when approached by a stranger, I want my daughter to tell us immediately of any approach online. Similarly, I don't want her to accept friendship requests from people she or we don't know, never chat to a stranger and never post any information that identifies where she lives or how to get in contact with her.
For us, we've decided that the best way to keep our little one safe online is not just to tell her the rules but also to spend the time to show her that we are the most trustworthy people when it comes to the internet. We want her to come to us, to ask questions and talk about what she can and can't do online. Our daughter is still very young so the simpler we can make the rules, the better. We also want her online time to be fun, and the more fun it is, the more she will remember of what we tell her.
We're just at the start of this journey. My daughter is already enjoying her online lullabies on YouTube. I want to ensure she continues to experience everything that is amazing about the web without having to endure the worst of our digital world.
Alex Malouf is Corporate Communications Manager for the Arabian Peninsula at Procter & Gamble