Sunday 19 May 2013

Kid and Mom on Computer

WatchOver Wednesday: Keeping Your Kids Safe Online

As part of National Missing Children’s Month, we are equipping parents on how to keep their kids safe. In February, we ran this blog “Keeping Your Kids Safe Online” as a means to equip parents on the importance of keeping a watchful eye on your children while they interact with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Today, we’re sharing this blog with you again.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Most youth today live in the land of social media. They use their Smartphone to text, BBM, tweet, connect with friends on Facebook, post pictures on virtual corkboards via Pinterest and let everyone know where they are on Foursquare. Privacy is no longer an issue because they share their entire lives with complete strangers unaware of how dangerous those strangers could become.

The Internet, and now social media, has given sexual predators access to youth, not only around the country, but also abroad. The Crime Against Children Research Center reports that 1 in 5 kids has received unwanted sexual solicitations via the web, and 25% of kids who use the Internet say they have been exposed to unwanted pornographic material online. 77% of those youth targeted were 14 or older. 22% were 10-13 years of age.

As a parent/guardian, you simply can’t keep your children from connecting with others via social media, but, there are some warning signs of which you must be aware, that may indicate whether or not your child has been contacted by a sexual predator, including:

-Increased activity on their phones or the internet
-pornography on your child’s computer
-receiving phone calls from adults you don’t know
-letters, gifts and packages in the mail from unknown sources addressed to your child

According to the FBI, there are some things you can do to safeguard your children from being victimized by sexual predators online. They include:

-Talk to your child. This may sound simple, but have simple conversations with your children works wonders. Take advantage of “teachable moments” when you can share with your kids what they should, and should not, do in situations. Don’t allow the fact that they may not be listening deter you, just continue to communicate with them so they will feel comfortable coming to you when they need to talk.

-Keep the computer in an open environment. Placing the computer in the family room will diminish your child’s opportunity for private chatting. Doing so will always allow you to see what they are doing on the computer.

-Review your child’s cell phone records. Doing this will help you to monitor calls sent and received. It also gives you an idea about what they are discussing via text messages and with whom.

If you find that a sexual predator has contacted your child, contact your local authorities. The sooner you can report the incident, the sooner you can disconnect that person’s contact with your child.
_______________________________________________________________
Candance L. Greene is a published editor and writer. She is also the editor for Black and Missing Foundation, Inc. She is the founder of Cherishedflight Communications, LLC, an editing and writing service.Check out her blog, “About the Writing Life”, on her website at www.cherishedflight.com/blog, and follow her on Facebook: Cherishedflight Communications and Twitter www.twitter.com/cherishedflight.

1 comment

  • James | March 8, 2013 at 11:55 am | Reply

    For smaller children, this concern is doubled, because although you can sit down and have a talk about these things before you introduce them to the computer, for them to grasp the concept of bad people online, not only is counterproductive towards their emotional development but takes the conversation into depths that may not be adequate to discuss at such a young age. When they are in the “why” phase, this becomes incredibly difficult. Instead we installed Magic Desktop (http://www.magicdesktop.com) so that they use their kid version of Windows. This helped a lot because all content, both off and online is stipulated by me and my wife. When they are older and they want to use the computer like grownups do, we can have this conversation in a way that helps them understand the implications. And I’m sure they will be able to and act accordingly.

Leave a comment

Send comment »

© 2013 Black & Missing Foundation Inc.

Powered by WordPress. Crossover Theme by AWESEM.