Online Child Safety

It’s a fact that many adults did not grow up with the Internet. Children on the other hand learn as they go along without any guidance or control. Even very young children have “accidental” mishaps, which can sometimes be horrifying! There are many dangers that might have been around as the web was blossoming, but not as noticeable back then.

The most common and potential DANGERS for children online are cybermobbing (or bullying), exploitation, fraud (unaware of who you are dealing with), misuse of information, misuse of photos (such as identity theft and child-pornography), privacy issues, sexting (of any content), social pressures (new levels of peer pressure), temptation to plagiarize and trusting unreliable sources.

Though this may seem alarming, this does not mean that parents should despair and be overly paranoid. In general, the same rules that have been taught to children offline for many generations should also be applied online – such as not talking to strangers, never give out any information, never meet up with someone who you don’t know, never send out photos that might be used against you or your family.

Children are less likely to be aware of all these dangers in comparison to adults until it hits them. People often tend to think that the dangers online will never affect them, but it can happen to anyone without their knowledge. Yes, it is exciting to share photos and details to family and friends all over the globe but not as exciting once you are in danger!

Children are likely to easily trust just anyone who wants to add them into their friend’s list and may therefore share all sorts of information, as they believe it is safe amongst “friends”. The same rules apply just like in real life, that you should never give any information about yourself to people who you don’t know. So, best to never add people who are not really your “friends”.

Things we should remind our children to NEVER post online (and this should be applied as early as possible for in this day and age, they will have the possibility of going online faster that you expect):

1. Birthdate and Birthplace. While it might be nice to hear from well-wishers on your birthday, think twice before doing so. Sometimes, revealing these exact details is like handing over your financial security to thieves.

2. Home Address. Opening up this way could have negative repercussions and this can include burglary, which is very common.

3. Mother’s Maiden Name. This is an especially valuable bit of information and is often the answer to security questions on many sites. Note that even credit card companies, your service providers and other numerous firms frequently rely on this tidbit to protect your personal information. Never ever post this online!

4. Long and Short Trips Away From Home. It might not be a clever idea to broadcast holiday dates and details or even a short trip to the grocery, restaurant or dinner before they even take place. If you really want to share this information, best to do so when you return but don’t be too specific. It’s just purely common sense.

5. Inappropriate Photos. By now, we all know that racy, illicit or incriminating photos posted online can cost you a job (or worse). And even deleted photos or videos could come back to haunt you! We don’t want these things to happen to our children…at all! Note that Ars Technica recently discovered that Facebook’s servers can store deleted photos for an unspecified amount of time and a spokesperson admitted that someone who previously had access to a photo and saved the direct URL from our content delivery network partner can still access the photo/s.

6. Confessions. You might just want to share to your friends (or the world) on how you feel on that exact moment in time or say nasty things about your boss and current job, etc. Don’t share it online. Keep things like these to yourself. We all have our moments and these moments are better left unsaid. Or instead, create a group that only consists of your trusted friends if you really wish to share some details. Just remember that once posted, it can be hard to erase proof of your illicit or illegal activities.

7. Phone Number. Why even post your number where anyone can reach you anywhere and at anytime of the day? Developer Tom Scott created an app called Evil that displays phone numbers published anywhere on Facebook. And according to Scott, he says that there are uncountable numbers of groups called “lost my phone and need your numbers”. Most of them are marked as “public” and many folks don’t really understand what that means, that public is everyone in the world whether or not they are members of that networking site.

8. Layout of Your Home. It’s one way of inviting criminals into your home. But believe it or not, some people post such information!

Safety first. Children are usually very gullible and easily tricked into things that they don’t really understand. Let’s all protect our children and keep them safe; they don’t deserve to be fooled by just anyone. It’s really not worth it.

This article was put together with the help of Rahel Stucki. Other helpful resource: www.wisekids.org.uk