After a child safety discussion on a WordPress Security Facebook group that I managed to participate in, I felt the need to touch up on children using WordPress, as I’ve been finding a lot of younger kids getting into creating websites and blogs. My own son has a WordPress blog as well.
The original question on Facebook was asked by Michele Butcher:
If you were setting up a blog for a minor (under 18 yr old) what kind of security measures would you do above what you typically do to a site?
Much of my own reply comes from the thread, but I wanted to blog about it as I haven’t seen too many posts cover this. These are things that I’ve thought of before allowing my son to have his first blog when he was 9 years old. Children using WordPress is a debatable topic because it makes parents think more about what they are comfortable with their kids doing on the Internet.
For parents that may have to think about this issue later on or for those folks currently facing this situation, hopefully this article will help guide you. This isn’t a post to force you in the favor of children using WordPress or for them to use the Internet, but to inform you of what you can do in the case that you do allow your kids to blog or create a website.
Children Using WordPress: How Can Parents Keep Them Safe
While a lot of people understand Internet safety, it’s not easy to put your mind around it when it comes to your children. In fact, it might be scary because there are a lot of people out there that you don’t know, and they might be people that you want to protect your children from.
However, if they are under 18 and wanting to have a website, you really need to sit down and think about a few things before giving the okay.
- You have to truly understand what tools are out there to keep your kid safe.
- You have to be comfortable with the thought that your child has a website.
- You have to make some rules.
- Make sure to really know your child. If they aren’t mature enough to handle it, then they don’t need to have a blog or website.
Once you have decided that your child can have a website, and have put together the rules, you need to do the following:
- Make sure your child is informed of the possible dangers of the Internet and how to spot the problem early on. Make sure if they end up in a situation that they are unsure of how to handle that they should come to you and ask.
- Monitor your child’s activities. Make sure they are going where they are suppose to and don’t be afraid to step in and moderate comments or posts.
- Lay down the rules with your child on what is acceptable to post and what is not acceptable to post. If you’re not comfortable with them posting their picture, then tell them so. Only give out information that you’re willing to give out and make sure that your child is aware of what they can’t say.
So, even though there are a lot of good tips above, there are some more things that you should be considering. Remember that I mentioned that you should only give out information that you’re willing to give out. Well, this could even fall back on where your child’s site is hosted.
If you’re using a web hosting service on a shared hosting account, that you install a self-hosted WordPress site, also known as a WordPress.org site), then you should protect the domain’s registration information. Some registrars offer a services for a few more dollars in order to make the contact information private. In doing this, you could prevent strangers from looking up your domain’s registration information, and then giving you an unwanted surprise visit. Please note that you could try falsifying your domain registration information, but you WILL risk losing your domain because it’s against most registrar’s terms. (As a note, I wanted to give kudos to a fellow WordPresser Matt Cromwell, as he and I both strongly agreed on this.)
On shared hosting, you will want to make sure to secure WordPress from hackers or bot attacks. If the wrong person hacks your child’s site, and they have password protected posts, they could end up with access to information that you didn’t want public. You also may want to make sure that in your site’s settings that you discourage search engines from crawling your website.
In the case that you’re using a free WordPress site, also known as a WordPress.com site, and you’re not even using a domain, you do have some protection because you don’t have to deal with a domain registrar’s regulations. Instead, you do deal with a WordPress.com user account and need to only fill out information that you’re willing to give.
As a last suggestion, if you’re only wanting family and close friends to have access to your child’s website, then publish the posts and set the visibility to password protected. Frankly, with the password protected visibilty option, you can just give a password out to those that you are allowing access. In the case that the child wants to use the site as a private diary, they can set the posts to private.
The biggest takeaway from this, is to make sure that both you and your children are fully informed, and to be active in protecting your personal information. Internet safety is important no matter the age!
Please remember that this article is more about WordPress safety tips for children. If you are allowing your children to use social networking websites, you should comply with their terms of service as a lot of them don’t allow children under the age of 13 or 14.
Do you have a child under 18 that uses WordPress? Are you okay with children using WordPress? What rules do you have in place in order to keep your child safe. Do you have any WordPress safety tips for WordPress safety tips for parents that aren’t already mentioned here?
Hi Nile,
Wow, you are a treasure chest of great ideas. Your articles are always packed with great ideas.Specially for the beginners who have recently started their blogging journey. Thanks for sharing such an excellent tips.
Hello Nile.
I guess to keep our kids safe we need to understand how WordPress works first. Personally I don’t find WordPress as a dangerous tool for kids or teens and as long as they do not share any personal information (and do not talk to strangers) they should be safe 🙂
Kris
Hi Nile,
Absolutely you have to keep your kids away from wordpress. You have shared some wonderfull tips and that i will share to my family members. Keep sharing so that I will share your’s article.
Regards,
I think to keep our children secure we need to comprehend how WordPress performs first. Individually I don’t find WordPress as a risky device for children or teenagers and provided that they do not discuss any private details.
A parent could retain more control by being an admin and only giving author permission to their child. It is the personal information they may reveal that is a worry but that’s no different to any of the social sites kids belong to. You still have to monitor them.
Using WordPress is a good skill for them to learn and it can fire their imagination, develop their interests and foster creativity. I think it’s a great idea that they use it.
Hi Nile,
Wow, you are a treasure chest of great ideas. Your articles are always packed with great ideas.Specially for the beginners who have recently started their blogging journey. Thanks for sharing such an excellent tips.
Excellent post, Nile! Only two of our children ever had blogs, but with each person in the house having his own computer, safety on the internet has always been a concern here.
Now we have only one child left at home. Thankfully my 15-year-old is far more interested in games with his brothers, than being on the internet — and so far he doesn’t want to have a blog. His computer is next to mine, so I’m aware of what he’s doing most of the time. Hopefully by the time he does want to branch out, he will be old enough or educated and disciplined enough to keep himself safe.
Great post Nile!
I’m new to your site but i’m sure to be returning! You have some crazy (in a good way) ideas that really engage the reader. I think a parent could gain more control by being the admin and limiting when her child is able to go onto the web.
Many thanks,
John
It is treasure box of information regarding about children safety fencing from internet. Internet is a source of information including bad and worst that is up to you what you receive from their.
I’ve never seen a post on this topic.
As someone who is constantly looking up information on whois.com for copyright and research information, I know how easy it is to find the name and location of someone, which is all you need to find their profile on Facebook or other social networks, and even find out information on them from Google…if anything about them has been posted. This means that kids could easily be found by anyone. And, malicious people could easily take advantage of that fact. Therefore, private registration is SO important!
Also installing the Web of Trust app on your browser can help alot!
Great info Nile.
My 16-year-old nephew started a photography blog over the summer. I am not sure if it is a WordPress blog but I doubt if his parents considered safety or security at all. I will refer them to this post or maybe even ask him myself.
I have six kids and have been using wordpress for years and I’ve been doing my best to keep the kids safe online. And rule making, and sticking to them, is a must!
My kids aren’t even allowed to use the computer yet, so I will definitely keep this in mind for when they are a little older.
We have passwords on out computers so that we know when the kids get on. It is good to know what they are doing online to help keep them safe.
Creating a website about something you are passionate about can be a great experience for a child. However, I 100% agree with you that it is up to the parents to set rules and to make sure their children understand and follow through with those rules.
I don’t have children of my own yet, but I used to teach high school and these are great tips! Having a website could be a great opportunity for a young entrepreneur, but as with anything there are also safety concerns to keep in mind. Thanks for making the process easier!
I think setting rules is important. It’s also important to monitor their sites and also their visitors as some might already be stalking them.
This is such a great idea. My son is always on the internet so I will be checking into it.
I would definitely make sure that my child didn’t include any private details on the blog like where we lived, pictures of her and her family, anything like that. I personally don’t even use my children’s real names on the blog and I don’t put any pictures of them so I’d do the same thing with my kids.
Thank you for sharing! Keeping my kids safe is a top priority
Great post! When I eventually have kids I will be very aware of what information they are putting out on the Internet!
Michelle
mash-elle.com
My children do not use WordPress. If they did we would make sure they knew how to safely navigate. As with any social media site safety is so important.
I think as long as very strict parameters and rules are in place along with parental guidance and supervision, it could work. A lot of monitoring would be critical though.
Well, these are so many of great ideas for children. I’m going to have to pass this link on to my daughter being I don’t have any children in the house and I don’t allow the kids to go on my computer. Thanks for sharing. I’m sure she’ll love this.
My kids are too young for WordPress yet. When they are of age there will be rules and a lot of monitoring in place.
Those are some important rules that parents need to put in place if they allow their kids to start a wordpress website. Internet can be a very dangerous place because we tend to get so comfortable with talking to strangers.
I haven’t really thought about kids having blogs so young and definitely agree that it would have its own share of tips and rules. Great article here!
I think ahgving my child use WordPress is a million times safer than using Facebook. That isn’t to say our children shouldn’t be cautious or aware of the dangers, but simply that WordPress isn’t social media and therefore is inherently more manageable.
My daughter has been talking about wanting to start a blog. Thanks for this information.
This is great information and tips for parents to think about with there kids safety using WordPress. It is important for the parents to decide if their child is mature enough to use it. Thanks for sharing.
i am always scared with the hackers. my daughter doesnt use wordpress yet but she uses youtube a lot and there is lot of bad things there to watch to I turn on the safety mode always
Children using WordPress!? Now that’s new! I have never hear of it, how can they allow ages 12-14 to do that, isn’t there an age limit supposed to be? I’d understand teenagers blogging. But 12-14, just block the website when you’re not using it! ;0
I think the password protection idea is a good one. My children are just starting to reach the age when they’re really using the internet. I WISH that included blogging- it can help provide some useful insights when you can lurk a thing or two 😉 lol
Kids and social media is a scary thing. We need to make sure we educate our kids about online saftey.
This is great! My boys are just starting to blog, this will come in handy!
Thank you for this article! In this technology age, we have to stay on top of ways to protect our kids.
Thanks for the advice. I have been considering letting my son start his own blog/youtube channel. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I told him we would talk when he turns 13. Now, that’s only 2 weeks away, and I know it will come up again soon.
These are great tips! This will surly help parents keep kids safe..
Hi there!
Personally, if I had a kid, I would first put WordPress into simpler words, so that they could understand who can see them, who can read what they’re posting, and how often they can see what they’re doing in their daily posts. I wouldn’t want to scare them away from WordPress though, because it’s a great writing experience for children, and creative minds can expand when you’re typing away!
Matt