As a parent myself, I cannot underestimate the importance of internet safety.
A recent breach of my our internet safety rules led to the confiscation of my daughter’s ipad. Normally, she is a great kid, but she breached an important rule on internet safety. This is what has led me to this write up. Other parents might find this write up useful. So please feel free to share.
The most important thing to realize that our children grow daily. My daughter is going to be eleven years old this year. Only five years ago, she was a cute six year old. Times change, mummies and daddies need to get up to speed.
As parents, we need to consider several things
- Are your children exposed to sexually explicit materials? If as a parent, you visit places like Pornhub, chances are that by omission and commission, your children may be exposed to that content. Our children often know where we keep things we are meant to hide. There are times when I have hidden something and I need my daughter to find it for me because I cannot remember where I kept it! Most times, she finds it. My sister likes chocolate, so she keeps chocolate bars around the house. Her children know ALL the possible places they can find a chocolate bar. The only thing that prevents her kids is the fear of their mother! The moral of the story is that our children see us. We can lie to the world, but we will never be able to deceive our kids.
- Facebook Messenger for Kids can become the avenue of cyber bullying. You want to keep on top of who your children are chatting with and what is causing the friction. Conflict in school often times carries on to Facebook Messenger for kids. I have had to appraise and decide whether my daughter needs Facebook Messenger in her life. We both decided that my daughter does not need Facebook Messenger for Kids in her life. It was a proud moment for both of us.
- Intimate Images: Recently, I noticed a friend’s daughter was posting on Tik Tok in her nightgown. I have always believed that there are parts of your body that are not meant for the world to see. But, this little girl was showing -not deliberately – herself on social media. When her mother was alerted, thankfully, all the videos’ were deleted. We need to teach our children what they can or cannot exhibit. Creating content in clothes that you only wear in your bedroom is a distasteful lack of judgement.
- Sextortion: This involves individuals who coerce youths into sending sexual images or engaging in sexual acts via camera-enabled devices and them black mail them with the threat of distributing the sexual images/videos of they do not pay money of provide more sexual images. The rule is if your child is blackmailed or extorted online, immediately call your local law enforcement agency or report to cybertip.ca It is important that you do the work on the self esteem of your children before they become teenagers so they are not flattered unduly by people to pose as friends. Encourage them from now to leave of having a boy friend or a girl friend until they are at least 18. The best way to keep your kids organized and potentially out of trouble is to have them in extra curricular activities. Teach your kids how to be assertive, show them they can block people who make them feel uncomfortable, create an atmosphere with your children where they are able to talk to you about anything. Also, there may be some wisdom in having a social media hiatus. Do your kids really need to be on social media?
- Have a listen to the interview we had with Abie Amen, a nurse and internet safety educator, she is the founder of the non-profit organization called the iphase Center
