What is a VPN, and why does my teen want one?
Usually not for anything sinister. Here is what it does, and what it means for the rules at home.
A VPN is a tunnel. Instead of going straight to the internet, everything the phone sends travels to a server somewhere else first, and only then out into the world. Websites see the server, not your home.
Teens want one for ordinary reasons: a show that is only available in another country, a game server abroad, or because a YouTuber said it makes you “anonymous.” It mostly doesn’t.
What parents should know: a tunnel also runs past most home filters and school filters. So the request is worth a conversation. Ask what it is for. If the answer is a show, there may be a simpler way. If the answer is “to get around the rules,” you have a better topic to talk about than VPNs.
Smartie’s tip
Free VPN apps often pay for themselves by collecting data. If your family needs one, it shouldn’t be the free one.
Written with Smartie, the KidsProxy assistant, and checked by a human before it went online.
Rules that hold at home and on the go.
See how KidsProxy Premium keeps the same rules on every connection.
Keep reading
- Smartie explains
How much screen time is normal at twelve?
There is no magic number. There is a better question to ask instead.
- Smartie explains
What is the difference between Snapchat and WhatsApp?
One forgets, one remembers. Why that matters for how kids use them.
- Privacy
Protecting is not the same as watching
Why KidsProxy decides what comes in, but doesn’t read what your kid writes, and why that makes the protection work better.