Tips for parents on how to keep Zoom Secure for your kids…

Now, thousands of kids across the country are on Zoom every day. My 3 kids are on it daily now for school. So, is it safe? Just like anything online, there are some precautions that parents need to take to keep their kids secure on Zoom. Today, I show you what you need to do to keep your kids’ meetings safe, and your meetings too for that matter.

Zoom is a useful tool in today’s distance learning. But it is not immune from hackers. So here are the things you need to do on your account or your child’s account to keep it secure.

Here are some tips if you have older kids that are hosting meetings themselves…My kids have started lunch meetings with their friends or even just chats while they are playing games. I love that it keeps them connected during this Corona Virus Quarantine, but it also opens them up to predators. So here are some tips to try to prevent this from happening.

1. Show them how to close the window and make sure they double check that the zoom application is closed when they finish a meeting.
2. Confirm they 100% know the person inviting them to a zoom meeting…make sure your child knows not to click on or open a zoom link unless they 100% know the person or source of that zoom link.

Here are some tips if you have older kids that are hosting meetings themselves…My kids have started lunch meetings with their friends or even just chats while they are playing games. I love that it keeps them connected during this Corona Virus Quarantine, but it also opens them up to predators. So here are some tips to try to prevent this from happening.

1. Enable the Waiting Room for all meetings.
2. Set initial settings for Video Off.
3. Set a password for the meeting and don’t share it with anyone outside the meeting group.
4. Show them how to quickly remove a person or end the meeting if after all these security precautions are taken, someone still manages to get through and inappropriately assert themselves into the meeting.
5. Show them how to LOCK a meeting. They should be able to lock their meeting once everyone they invited has joined. This will prevent any further participants from jumping in or trying to show up as a surprise guest in their meeting.
6. Most importantly, talk to them about the dangers of using this technology. There are privileges that come along with having access to this technology just like other technology platforms and social media out there. But they should be aware of the dangers, have tools and rules in place to use it responsibly.