Happinetz Ensures Your Teen’s Security On The Internet

The Internet is a playground for most of us to explore and try new things. More so for teenagers today as they rely on the internet for help with their academics along with entertainment.

My daughter is 14 years old. Being a 9th grade student, she is highly dependent on the internet for educational information. As she has not enrolled for any tuitions she uses the internet extensively to watch informational YouTube videos and many online tutoring videos for guidance with school work.

Thus, I am always concerned about my daughter’s security on the internet. One can’t be sure of the kind of advertisements that would pop up while watching videos. She could be exposed to content not suitable for her age.

She also has been using social media since the last one year. She is on online chat platforms to be connected with her friends and also school groups. I worry sometimes that this leaves her vulnerable. There is always a threat of excessive use of social media leading to distractions, disrupting of sleep and exposure to cyber bullying, rumour spreading plus mounting peer pressure to be cool.

Recently I watched the movie OMG 2, where a teenage boy is a victim of rumour spreading and bullying at school. He turns to the Internet to help him out with the situation and gets exposed to misleading information forcing him to take all the wrong steps which affects his mental health. Also, the OTT series Made in Heaven dealt with the issue of teenagers using social media to abuse a classmate. Watching these made me even more worried about security on the Internet and teenagers being highly dependent on the same. I have read numerous articles where youngsters have been lured by people online to become friends exposing them to unhealthy and unsafe relationships.

Being a parent of a teenager I am always torn between how to have a balanced approach. I don’t want to be a helicopter parent. I give her the freedom to make her choices. I put my complete trust in her and don’t like to control. Thus, even when there are times when I feel she is glued to the gadget beyond a couple of hours, I do not want to take the gadget away from her. I want her to learn self control, understand the importance of making responsible choices. Having said that, I want to protect her too but not by spying on her internet activity or invading her privacy.

What I really needed was a system that protects my daughter 24*7 online and take responsibility for her security on the internet. Especially since I cannot always be present physically to monitor nor is it humanly possible.

I tackled this major issue with the help of Happinetz – An Expert Internet Filtering System.

What is Happinetz?

Happinetz Box, safe internet for kids, connects to your home router, wired or wirelessly to filter out age inappropriate content using a multi-level filtering system.

How To Set-Up Happinetz?

The set-up process of the Happinetz Box is very easy and simple.

Step 1: Connect the power adapter

Step 2: Plug Happinetz Box to the home router using the ethernet cable provided in the box.

Step 3: Download the Happinetz App on the parent’s phone and follow the steps on the screen.

The app does not need to be downloaded on the devices used by children. Children’s devices are only to be connected via the Happinetz WiFi. This ensures your child’s complete security on the internet.

How does Happinetz work?

The Happinetz filtering system sends all app and website requests from their devices to a central filtering system which determines whether the requests should be permitted or denied. You can check this video for a more detailed understanding.

Happinetz immediately sends a notification to the parent’s device (device on which the app is downloaded) when the child’s device connects or disconnects from the Happinetz network.

Happinetz works on all browsers and on all devices such as laptops, tablets, phones (Android and iOS) and smart tv’s. Happinetz is equipped to manage up to 10 devices.

Currently more than 110 million websites and apps are being monitored and tracked by the system and more than 22 million adult and unsecured ones are blocked by default.

Happinetz Features :

Modes:

Happinetz has three modes namely kid, teen and parent. Each comes with its own default, preconfigured setting that can be customised as per individual needs. It is on the basis of the mode selected that the system determines how content is filtered so it’s important to choose the right mode for your children’s devices.

Kid Mode – which is for children below the age of 13

Teen Mode – which is for children above the age of 13

Parent Mode– This mode does not deploy screen time and safe internet protocol on the selected device.

Filters:

The Happinetz System filters websites and apps by categorising and clubbing them under 15 categories.

The categories are Safe Search, Education, Online learning, News & General Knowledge, Home & Family, Chat & Forum, Social Media, Video & Entertainment, Gaming, Games for kids, Health & Finance, Shopping, Advertisements, Adult & Security.

These categories (except Adult & Security and Safe Search) can be easily switched on or switched off using the toggle button as per child’s needs.

Set schedules:

A major concern for parents is the screen time of their children. To address this, Happinetz allows the parent to set the time limit for internet usage. Happinetz system enables the parent to set internet access time schedules according to the requirements. Also, there is a provision to extend Internet time for a particular day which means the schedules can be customised as required. A device that is connected through the Happinetz System can only access the Internet during the schedule that is fixed.

Pause Internet:

This is an interesting feature. There are days and times when a parent would not want the child to access the internet on their device. Pause internet feature allows to pause the internet on a device connected to the Happinetz network. The internet remains paused until the parent resumes it through the app.

Insights And History:

This feature gives me complete control as a parent. I personally love this feature as it is in sync with my parenting style. I want to give my teenage daughter the liberty to make the right choices and not force her to give up on the device. So through this feature I get an overview of my daughter’s internet activity, giving me the much needed relief while she is using the internet.

Happinetz also provides a list of browsed websites and apps but does not track specific activities within each website or app, allowing my daughter her privacy and yet keeping me informed in case I need to step in.

Whitelist or Blacklist specific domains:

While the Happinetz Filtering system employs a dynamic process to allow or deny website and app access, if a parent further wishes to customise by whitelisting or blacklisting specific domains, one can use the advanced feature by doing so.

Conclusion:

I have been using the Happinetz Box for a couple of weeks now and this makes me a relieved parent as it ensures my daughter’s security on the internet. Using Happinetz has reduced the number of arguments I used to have with my teenage daughter while discussing internet usage, improving the environment in my home.

Now, I don’t need to constantly monitor my daughter’s gadget time. Using Happinetz has made me realise that while we are bothered by too much dependence on technology, if used wisely, technology can unburden us parents.

You can buy Happinetz here: Happinetz