Parent's Guide to Internet Safety
Raising children can suddenly make the world seem a frightening and dangerous place.
While you may have grown up wandering the streets or visiting
friends or the mall without telling your parents where you were going,
giving your own children that kind of freedom is unthinkable for many
parents today. In the age of smartphones, we're accustomed to knowing
where our kids are at all times.
Children and teens today are more tech-savvy than ever, having
grown up with the technology we've seen evolve so quickly over time. But
even when your kids have as much technical know-how as adults, they
don't yet have the experience and discernment necessary to keep them
safe online.
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While there are general guidelines to follow to keep your children safe online, many of them are common-sense and too general to help in many situations. Some of them are out of touch with modern technology, such as the FBI's Parent's Guide to Internet Safety, which advises you to monitor your children's email: most children today don't communicate primarily through email anymore, or even through texts.
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Instead, social media networks and smartphone apps are more popular for chatting and sharing multimedia online. Chances are your child is chatting with an app like Snapchat or Kick, or a social network like Ask.fm.
Illustrated Guides
The following chapters cover the most popular online apps and websites that parents should understand.
Snapchat is one of the most popular smartphone messaging apps being
used by kids today: about a third of all teens in the United States use
Snapchat, sending millions of photos and videos every day. With
Snapchat, users can send their friends photos, videos, and
screencaptures, which are supposed to auto-destruct within a few
seconds. But the images can easily be undeleted or screen captured on
another device, leaving a permanent record of whatever images your child
chooses to share.
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Kik Messenger is another popular app among teens and young adults.
It allows you to message others without giving out your phone number,
making it popular for users who want to retain their anonymity. Just
looking at the app reviews, it's clear that Kik is very popular for
sending explicit messages. The app itself is rated 17+ in the app store
for "Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes,” but that doesn't stop
kids from downloading and using it.
Then there's Ask.fm, a question-and-answer social networking
website which has received a lot of press surrounding bullying issues
and related suicides around the world. Users 13 and older are allowed,
and there are no systems for monitoring content. Due to the lack of
moderation and encouraged anonymity, the network has become a mecca for
cyberbullying.
Illustrated Guide to E-Safety
Keep Your Kids Safe online with PC Tattletale Monitoring Software, Start Here.
With all these new online dangers, even your own home can be
dangerous place for children. By staying informed about the most popular
websites and apps your children are likely to be using, you can learn
how to talk to your child about using them safely, and what specific
steps you can take to make their experience safer while they have fun
chatting online with friends and exploring the web.
Source/Credit: eSafety Guide on http://www.whoishostingthis.com/resources/e-safety/
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