Social Media & Online Safety
When nationally renowned speaker, Ben Tracy, visited HOPE in February of 2026, he spoke to students from 3rd - 12th grade on all three campuses, and to parents for a special evening session. >Here are some videos on the topics he spoke of.
As a follow up to the life saving information Ben shared about youth online safety and social media, our technology department here at HOPE prepared simple suggestions that parents can do to help keep students safe online while at home.
Home Network:
- User Router-Based Controls
- most modern routers allow you to set content filters
- time schedules that can be applied to every device in your house
- Create a Guest Network for Smart Devices
- Use a separate, password protected guest network for smart devices (game consoles, smart TVs & phones) to keep them isolated from your main, secure network.
- Pause the Internet
- Use your router’s app to "pause" the internet
- Configure DNS Filtering
- Change your router’s DNS settings to a service that filters content OpenDNS Family Shield or CleanBrowsing
Device-Level Controls (Individual Devices)
- Cover Webcams
- Set up “Kids Mode”
- Microsoft Edge Kids Mode or similar features on browsers to create a more safe environment
- Enable SafeSearch Filters on Google, Bing and YouTube(Restricted Mode) to hide explicit content
- Delete Search History
- Periodically clear browsing data
Cell Phone:
- Location Sharing is turned off for social media
- Location GPS turned off for pictures
- Disable In-App Purchasing
Games:
- Turn off chat features
- Set Content restrictions
- Disable In-App Purchasing
Specialized Tools:
- Google Family Link (Android/Chromebook)
- manage your child’s app usage, set screen time limits and remotely lock devices
- can be used with school issued devices
- Apple Screen Time (iOS/Mac)
- Use restrictions to block adult content, prevent app downloads, and manage privacy settings (preventing camera or location sharing)
- Install Monitoring Apps:
