Managing internet access for children with Happinetz

Today I talk about managing internet access for children with Happinetz

The best thing about the internet is that it opens up the world to us. That unfortunately is also the worst thing, because managing internet access, especially when it comes to children may need to be done with guidance and intervention.

Tldr:

I want Happinetz to solve the problem of kids accidentally seeing harmful content online, including adult games.

But what exactly is Happinetz? I will tell you all about my tech guardian. But before that I need to go back to when the story started.

It was 2020 and the Pandemic hit us hard and out of the blue. Online school was a new normal during the pandemic. I felt lucky to have an education for my child. However, with time, as internet access for children became more common and widespread, we adults realized that all content on the Internet is not child-specific or age-appropriate. I needed a solution that would keep internet browsing safe for my child.

Thanks to Happy Parents Lab, because of whom I found Happinetz. It is the brainchild of my favourite blogging platform Blogchatter’s founder owners Richa and Vikas. With Happinetz, the good of the internet is accessible with zero headache of managing internet access on my part.

While being a mother means I will never again rest easy, having an ally like Happinetz for managing internet access makes me happy. This is especially true when I am not physically looking over my daughter’s shoulder. Yes, I do that too. But this is getting trickier as she is growing up and when one has a thousand and one things to juggle. A home is never done. And the internet can never truly be safe or kid friendly. It’s the world wide web and there is so much that you and I, regular everyday people don’t know about. I recognise the immense opportunity for education and learning that the internet opens up for all of us. But as a mommy, I am also afraid.

Did I tell you about the real life Jamtara scam I faced? It was horrifying how creepy these crooks are. Now, I am scared of online predators who use chat windows, gaming sites, and ads to harm children and steal data. It’s not too late to have gatekeepers around, both physical and digital because the predators are everywhere.

Happinetz helps me screen for several categories of content while easily managing internet access.

Though Happinetz has divided the internet into 15 categories, some of the common categories that I have found the most useful are:

• Online learning
• Education
• Home and Family
• News and General Knowledge
• Video and entertainment
• Chat and forum

What are the age options of access control you ask?

There are 3 modes, kid, teen and parent and toggling between them is easy. So is setting up internet access timing. Best part, I can do this right on my phone.

I am a curious person. So is my daughter. I also encourage her to do her own research while making her school projects. While I don’t enjoy peeping over her shoulder, I keep a strict watch on her online history, overall time spent and specific sites she spends time on. She doesn’t text or video call friends without our permission and I know it’s not always a ten on ten situation. So I am happy Happinetz is there to keep her curiosity safe from age-inappropriate content.

I know also that while gamified learning is helpful, excessive gaming may be a problem. Happinetz allows her to access quiz sites with fun or educational content while blocking sites I don’t want her to see. That’s where Happinetz’s advanced settings to whitelist specific websites and blacklist others made me relax with a smile.

Children will be children. If you have checked out some recent scary stories about grooming gangs stalking kids through social media, you will know why you need an internet guardian.

How I got Happinetz to manage Internet access

My daughter hasn’t asked for her own phone yet. She uses one of our phones for occasionally chatting with her friends. The school has made a sensible decision of banning children from having social media accounts.

She has access to one phone to check her school messages and a laptop for school work. We connected Happinetz on both these devices. From the laptop it was a simple matter of finding the Happinetz Wi-Fi connection. Happinetz has an exhaustive filtering system, a customisable internet schedule option and insights to help me monitor the websites and apps accessed online by my child’s device.

 

You just need to install the app on your phone (the mommy or daddy phone) from where you can link the devices whom you want Happinetz to monitor.

I like tech stuff which makes life easy, not complicated. The 5 minutes Happinetz setup was worry free. Since the user manual is easy to follow, setting up the connection with the device and router is effortless. In fact, my daughter helped me set it up and make an unboxing video.

My hubby had a few questions when I told him about Happinetz and since men have typical men questions, I am sharing some FAQs.

Will Happinetz impact the main Wi-Fi at home ?

No. Happinetz only monitors the devices connected to its WiFi. Devices connected to the home router will not be monitored.

Will I face problems while accessing news sites ecommerce stores etc using my phone when Happinetz app is installed?

No. If you haven’t added your phone as a device to be connected through Happinetz then your phone internet will be unaffected.

Even if your phone has been added to the Happinetz network, you can keep it on parent mode. When the device is on parent mode, filters or time slots are automatically switched off.

How to check issues with Happinetz?

You can check the activity tab on the app for easy understanding of any issues you encounter.

But I have a pet peeve. The history shows several sites which give a 404 error when I search for them by URL, though my daughter really didn’t see anything. I don’t know whether that’s a glitch or I am missing something. You have no way of drilling down into what exactly the kid sees on YouTube.

I am sure if kids put their mind on it, they can bypass the best gatekeepers. I was a kid once too. But if there are roadblocks in place, sometimes it’s that much more time consuming to visit a gaming site. Happinetz assures us that they have taken care of all popular methods of bypassing parental control systems.

All in all, Happinetz has really made parenting and managing internet access for my child easy. If you want to get the Happinetz box for your home to manage internet access, buy it here.