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Steve Hicks, head of global sales at BullGuard outlines how parents’ needs to protect their children and schools’ needs to ensure good pupil results can dovetail and be leveraged to even greater sales
Every parent understands the instinctive need to protect their children balanced with letting them explore, learn and discover. It’s a difficult enough task and is further complicated by the online world.
Today’s kids are true digital natives. It’s important to encourage digital aptitude given that it is increasingly essential as children get older and border on entering the workplace.
But most parents are understandably wary of the dangers they can be exposed to online. And let’s face it, there’s some pretty nasty stuff on the web.
Many parents are up to speed with the dangers but there are also a lot who struggle to keep up.
Resellers are in a great position to help these parents with advice and guidance. And they’ll appreciate it too. A reseller can help by pointing them to things like BullGuard’s free, downloadable document: A Parents’ Guide to Protecting Children Online.
This is not just about safeguarding against malware but also the use of features such as parental controls to keep a discreet eye on the children. Parental controls can help parents set reasonable limits for the time children spend online and also flag up disturbing content which can have a damaging effect.
Some security software also includes social media protection. Recent research by the NSPCC reveals that in England and Wales there are about 15 sexual grooming attempts aimed at children every day. Social media protection flags up stranger danger and allows parents to step in. It also protects against online bullying, and we all know how damaging that can be.
Most schools have a strong digital element to their curriculum and an element in this is safety awareness. While many operate with tight budgets they do understand the importance of technology and actively make use of tablets and devices like Kindles.
These are not only used for every-day learning but are also given to some pupils to take home. Schools today are results driven, and schools can lose out in Ofsted rankings if their students don’t hit the mark. Within this context, schools value technology and understand that children readily engage with tech devices. For instance, if a primary school student is struggling with reading comprehension, they might be given a Kindle to take home.
This is s good opportunity to not only make ‘bulk’ device sales at discounted rates but also load security software onto the devices.
In short, schools today make extensive use of technology across a range of subjects to help their pupils to achieve good grades. Understanding that schools need to ensure good pupil performance and that technology is seen as an important component in this is a great door opener.
