Online & Digital Safety Resources
The Internet can be a wonderful place for kids to learn new things, play games, get homework help, and connect with their friends. However, as we all know, not everything — or everyone — on the Internet is looking out for your child's best interest. It is important to have discussions at home and to consider tools to help minimize inappropriate access.
Los Alamitos USD provides filters that protect students when they are at school. These web filters help mitigate students from accidently accessing an inappropriate website during the course of their classroom work. However, the filter only works when students are connected to the school network. For example, the filter does not extend to students using Los Alamitos USD Google or Microsoft accounts at home. It is the District’s recommendation that families use web filters at home and have conversations with their children about Internet safety.
Directions for Preparing Your Device to Connect to Los Al Wireless Networks
As part of our partnership with parents to provide 21st-century learning for all students, Los Alamitos USD has collected the resources below, providing some options to consider and explore. The resources that are included are not the only options available, but they did receive positive reviews and are reasonably priced.
Monitoring & Filtering the Internet at Home
Device and Hardware Options:
One of the easiest ways to set up parental controls is by connecting a device to your router. Setting up parental controls will allow you to perform web filtering for all the devices on your network — computers, smartphones, tablets, and even game consoles.
Web Services:
Another option is to use an online web service to filter all internet traffic into your home. This option does not require any hardware to function.
Chromebook Settings:
Regardless of how you choose to control internet access in your home, chromebooks can be setup to prevent anyone except your student from logging. You also have the option of setting up Google Family Link to further monitor your student's online behavior.
Getting Involved in Your Student's Online Activities
Experts suggest that we all take an active role in protecting your kids from internet dangers and explicit materials online. Recommendations include:
- Become computer literate and learn how to block objectionable material.
- Keep the computer in a common area, not in individual bedrooms, where you can watch and monitor its use.
- Monitor any time spend on smartphones. game consoles, or tablets.
- Share an email or social media account with your child so you can monitor messages.
- Bookmark kids' favorite sites for easy access.
- Spend time online together to teach your kids appropriate online behavior.
- Prevent your child from entering private forums; block them with safety features provided by your home router or with special filtering software.
- Be aware that posting messages to forums reveals a user's email address to others.
- Take your child seriously if he or she reports an uncomfortable online exchange.