Blog

The Internet is, well, not a very safe place to be.   Especially for children, who are curious and want to discover the world of the Internet, the online space can quickly become a nightmare.   It is mainly because the Internet has quickly become a place...

The world of social media is getting bigger with time. So is its impact on how the world functions. While businesses have been using social media as a great advertising medium, a large majority of the population still use it to consume content of their near and dear...

Are you working remotely as well due to the COVID-19 outbreak? Well, if you are, it’s crucial that all important security measures are taken to ensure a safe online experience during the lockdown. In this post, we are going to provide you with some of the best tips to...

Most children are on the internet nowadays and most of them know how to use the internet better than most adults. Unfortunately, children are often not developed enough to understand the dangers of the internet. Children are more likely to be targeted by cyber crimes...

Nowadays, more and more children have smartphones. This is both very handy but they can become addicted to it very easily if they use it without any boundaries. Therefore we’ve set up a guide how you can set these boundaries for your kid in the right way.   Watch...

The internet has succeeded in making the world a truly global village. That has ensured anyone and everyone from all parts of the world can reach one another in the blink of an eye. It has also increased our access to information, among other things. For all these...

The world children are being raised in is nothing like their parents grew up in. These days, it is not out of place to see a toddler with a tablet of their own – or a growing kid who knows more about the internet than even their parents. While it is very possible that...

1)  Download the Wixio App from the Google Play Store. 2)  Sign in or sign-up   3)    Add your device    4)  Click Ok to allow the Connection request.   5)  Tap Check Profile and your device is now protected.

1)  Download the Wixio App from the AppStore. 2)  Sign in or sign-up   3)    Add your device    4)  The app will open a website.  Tap Allow and Close.   5)  Go to Settings and Click Profile Downloaded.  If that does not appear goto General->Profile....

There are a lot of social media networks out there already – and keeping track of them as a parent could be a herculean task. Just when it seems like you have finally gotten a hang of them all, though, your kid springs a new one on you – TikTok. Just like any other...

The video gaming industry is expected to attain surpass US$138 billion in revenues by 2021, and it is only going to go even farther up from there. That said, there seems to be no stopping the growth of this industry. As parents, you must have already seen that in the...

About every parent teaches their kids not to talk to strangers. While many of these parents also do a good job of enforcing that teaching, you don’t want to be a part of those who leave out one important angle – social media. If your kid is on social media already,...

Parents have a responsibility to keep their kids safe, but it is easy to forget all the playing grounds on which this safety requirement is needed.  For one, it is important that your kids are safe in the home, at school, when they are on the playground or just...

Fortnite could be the hottest game on the planet right now, but that depends on what side of the world you are on. If you are a kid who enjoys lounging around with the game for several hours on end every day, then you would think the same too. If you are, rather, a...

Kids today are growing up in a world much different from the one their parents are used to. Almost anywhere and everywhere they turn to, there is a screen waiting for them. Before they turn off the TV at all, they already have their iPads to turn to. That, or they...

Every good parent sees their kids as innocent little bundles of joy – as it should be. What you might not know is that yours might be the 1 out of 10 kids who have seen porn – and this statistic is about kids under the age of 10. In fact, children in the 7th grade age...

Research has stated that 43% of kids have, at one time or the other, been bullied online. The sad news doesn’t even stop there – at least one out of every four of these kids have been a repeat victim. If that is not enough to set your bells off, wait till you find out...

The way we consume content has changed in the past several years. As of the time of this writing, people now love to stream their video content online – and our kids are being born into that generation. You would think so too if you considered the mammoth 2 billion...

The dark web is part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines so not visible using traditional web browsers. The dark web requires a special anonymous browser called Tor. Research has shown that about 60% of dark web activities are illegal and lot of this...

Sites that use Adobe Flash graphics. Adobe Flash has become a big malware target. Some of these Flash sites also offer a free download of Adobe Flash, often times infected. Sites that use shortened links. It is very simple to hide scams and malware behind a shortened...

Talk to your kids and set boundaries. Let them know there are expectations, what they are and that internet access is a privilege that shouldn't be abused. It can be taken away. Set time limits for internet access. If you find at certain times of the day they are...

Introducing the Wixio Parental Control App for Android and iOS. The Wixio App makes it safe for kids to explore the internet, online videos and searches. It works on all your kids' devices to ensure that they are only viewing approved content. Be in control of what...

The most widely used mechanism to authenticate a user to a system is a password.  Consequently obtaining passwords is a common and effective attack.  How are these passwords obtained? Access to a person's password can be obtained usually by looking around a...

300 hours of video are uploaded to Youtube every minute People now watch 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day The average person wtaches 40 minutes of YouTube content a day More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices 94% of American 18-24 year olds...

A few things that you should do and know to be safe online. Keep your personal information professional and limited.  Not everyone needs to know your relationship status and home address.  Limit what you put out there to those you know.  The bigger the...

Some questions to ask yourself when purchasing parental control software.  Knowing these answers will help you figure out what software or app is best for you and your kids. Are your kids loyal to one device or are you looking for a well rounded general fix? How...

How does antivirus software work?   Background Scans.  Antivirus software scans all files you open in the background.  This is often called access scanning.   Full System Scans.  These scans are usually done at a preset time and scans all your files.  These...

Some online safety tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Beware of Fake websites.  There are lots of hackers trying to get your information.  They send great emails offering unbelievable deals just to steal your account information.   Shop on secure...

Planning to shop online this holiday?  More than 85% of people will.  Here are some holiday online safety tips.   Shop at websites you trust.  Just because there is a cheaper price somewhere else doesn't mean it is trustworthy. Beware of rock bottom prices. ...

Screen time is time spent in front of any screen for entertainment or recreational purposes.  This topic is a serious issue and starting to be recognized by several major companies, including Apple who just launched Screen Time management in their new iOS.Here...

There are a number of positive aspects of social media which we will examine shortly, but the negative effects on children are also numerous.   Social media can affect the mental health of teens.  Levels of contentment can decrease and their likelihood of getting...

Online friendships are very important to young people so much so that they endure other pain or loss rather than loose access to them.  Netiquette is the standard of behavior for online interactions with others.  Here are some guidelines.   Online actions have...

Fortnite is hottest game in the world.  August 2018 saw 78 million players alone. Is Fortnite addiction real?  Yes.  Here are some tips to help. Taking away their devices doesn't help. Enroll them in the process and work with them to identify alternative things to...

Cyberstalking is simply online stalking. It is defined as the use of technology such as the internet to harass someone. Common characteristics include threats, monitoring, accusations, and identity theft. Stalkers use various communication types to stalk, including...

Phishing is a method of gathering personal information about you using deceptive emails and websites.  This is an increasingly sophisticated form of cyber attack. Phishing attacks generally begins as an email sent a recipient.  The key to the email is that...

Get outside and take a walk.  This is one of the easiest and cheapest things you can do together.Get outside and take a walk.  This is one of the easiest and cheapest things you can do together. Cook something together.  Baking or preparing a family...

This is a lot of information about identity theft and how to prevent it.  Here are some myths and truths about identity theft.  This is a lot of information about identity theft and how to prevent it.  Here are some myths and truths about identity theft. Myth:  If I...

What is Fortnite? Fortnite is a free shooter game designed by Epic Games. It has become one of the most popular games among kids this year. 100 users are dropped from a plane onto an island and the goal is to be the last one alive. You can work with friends and teams...

What are the biggest security threats to kids? Threats that shared in common with adults include viruses, malware, malicious sites, and downloads.  Targeted specifically to kids are free stuff messages like free music or movies or ringtones, messages that look like...

With so many apps, software, and hardware devices that filter the web, determining what the right one for your family is important. The subject of web filtering is a huge topic ranging from antivirus/malware to content filtering for kids. So how do you know which one...

The following are some internet safety tips you can talk to your kids about. Keeping kids safe on the internet top the list of things parents worry most about when it comes to the internet. Like any other subject, you should use this conversation as way to teach and...

A guest post from our Founder As you may remember I contributed to a blog several weeks ago about Marco's YouTube filter was able to do when my daughter decided to what twerking videos (http://www.vxenetworks.com/youtube-parental-controls/). Well I'm writing again...

Are your kids getting too much fake news?  If they are on social media, they mostly like are.  What's real and what's funny?  It's getting harder to tell.  It's critical that kids learn to determine what is real and what is not.  Parents can help kids become more...

Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person, usually by sending messages that are threatening in nature.  Cyberbullying can happen to anyone, but more often to kids as they maybe reluctant to take action or admit they are victims.  Examples...

Here are some great links for Facebook online safety. FFacebook has it's own safety page - https://www.facebook.com/safety   If you need to report something, find it here - https://www.facebook.com/report There are a number of tools concerning blocking and...

Here are some quick tips about control kids' screen time. Establish tech free zones.  Make it clear where these are in your house.  For instance if you watch a lot of TV in the living room and devices are interfering with that, then maybe that could be a...

A guest post from our Founder "I can't watch a restricted video here" is what my 10 year old daughter said to her Grammy as we sat outside and she reached for her phone to show her a twerking video.  She was visiting us for a few weeks and of course her phone is...

Safesearch when turned on helps block explicit images, videos, and websites from searches.  It's job is to provide the most relevant results minus any explicit content such as pornography and other offensive content.  The companion YouTube restrictions is Restricted...

What are the best parental controls?  Asking a question like that is similar to asking what is the best car? Well that depends on what you want - a fast car, a family car, an economical car.  There is no general answer but rather you need to identify what...

Let's face it, for lots of families using the internet is a way to communicate with each other. Kids have Twitter and Instagram accounts and parents have Facebook accounts. We use these accounts to see what our kids are up to. Your kids also have online accounts for...

Have you noticed increase in recent privacy policies in your mailbox?  It seems everyday we are getting bombarded with a new online privacy policy.  The reason is called the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) law. This European law has already gone into effect....

We get asked so many times how to block porn. Without Marco, blocking porn is nearly impossible. Marco is a whole house web filter that can easily block porn. It creates two separate wifi zones, one for parents and one for kids. Within the kids zone, you can enable...

HTTPs filtering decrypts traffic between you and a website, typically called man-in-the-middle (MITM). HTTPs was designed to provide encryption between two points so the thought of decrypting traffic between these two points is counter productive to its intent. There...

9 out of 10 teens say their parents have talked to them about internet safety; however nearly half claim that their parents do nothing to monitor their devices (https://www.cox.com/content/dam/cox/aboutus/documents/tween-internet-safety-survey.pdf) Internet safety...

1)  Setup times your kids can use the internet. This should be clearly communicated so that when its time to turn off they know the expectation. Make a place within your home outside of where they normally use their device that they put when they are not supposed be...