Social media: Children safety online
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| image source: pixabay.com |
The danger is at any moment there are over 750,000 online individuals looking to connect with children. Such connection are aimed at exploiting children. A child is naïve, easily trusts and not able to fully discern what is good or bad and online criminals take advantage of children naivety. Social media and internet has a lot of influence on children both good and bad, without proper guidance on social media use, children safety is threatened. social media can invite criminals to violate various children rights; right to privacy, right to safety and free from any form of abuse.
Benefits of the internet and social media to children
- Access news which can help protect their health, safety and rights.
- Inform them of the educational, training and job opportunities which can help break the vicious cycle of poverty.
- Help children to hone their communication skills and express themselves freely
- Can help them enhance their networking skills
- A good platform to learn a skill or two needed in their lives.
How the safety of children is threatened online
Child sexual abuse and
exploitation - the children online predators uses social media to locate and target vulnerable children to undertake their mission. Through the use of unprotected profiles and gaming forums, child sex
offenders can reach children on social media. By use of encrypted
platforms and false identity, the offenders can not be detected easily and can
runaway with it. Worse still they can pursue multiple children at the same
time. Sharing of intimate
photos and videos among children is another vice of internet to children. Sharing inappropriate content is not only from an adult to a child but its also being propagated among children via messaging app.
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| image source:cyber bullying |
Use of digital platforms have immensely reduced time for doing constructive work like
learning.
In as much as social media expose children to more knowledgeable
materials, children tend to spend more time at the expense of learning time.
Some kids chat way past their sleeping time affecting their physical
and mental activity. Excessive use will lead to poor performance in school and life in general.
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Certain content shared
online threatens the safety of kids online, they can pose health risks,
encourage kids to harm themselves and commit suicide. No one controls
the information posted on social media and some of this information is not for
kids consumption. This culminates to kids bumping into obscene, harmful content
likely to influence their thinking process. Online gambling which is highly advertised on
social media is also an activity not safe for kids and very addictive. Kids are found to use their
money or parents money to gamble. As listed, children should not share sensitive information with the public on social media.
Publishing personal information on the social media, children may not be abreast on what to post and not to post on their digital platforms. Personal information might expose them to security risks. Some kids even post their physical address on their social media profiles.With posting such information a kidnapper will locate the kids easily. This article gives a hint on what should not be shared on digital platforms.
Clicking on malicious links and attachments on their emails- children might not know the danger of clicking on emails sent by strangers. Scammers use such tricks to gather information of childrens' friends such as email address and names of their friends for scams. Children should be warned of clicking emails from strangers.
Victims of scams- Children might fall for a trick to give their parents bank details with a promise to get a present from cybercriminals. Young people are not careful and might not know a scam from the onset.
Unknowingly downloading malware- Children might accidentally install programs likely to cause harm to their gadget (computer, tablet or smart phones). Malwares are created to steal personal information from a computer by cybercriminals. Children need to be made aware of such malware, an antivirus can also safeguard them from such risks.
Careless posts on social media by a child can come to him/her later in life. People have lost jobs due to posts they made on social media not pleasant to their employer. It's therefore important to tell kids to be responsible facebook users as its cost them a fortune.
How can we mitigate the risks faced by children online
The risks exposed to children in this digital era are many, but how do we minimize them and maximize the benefits of internet use to our children;
Parents Communicating with children on the risks as they increasingly use the online platforms in expanding their knowledge, socializing, expressing their opinions, entertaining themselves, access information and solutions to worlds problems is very crucial.
Publishing personal information on the social media, children may not be abreast on what to post and not to post on their digital platforms. Personal information might expose them to security risks. Some kids even post their physical address on their social media profiles.With posting such information a kidnapper will locate the kids easily. This article gives a hint on what should not be shared on digital platforms.
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| image source: pixabay.com |
Victims of scams- Children might fall for a trick to give their parents bank details with a promise to get a present from cybercriminals. Young people are not careful and might not know a scam from the onset.
Unknowingly downloading malware- Children might accidentally install programs likely to cause harm to their gadget (computer, tablet or smart phones). Malwares are created to steal personal information from a computer by cybercriminals. Children need to be made aware of such malware, an antivirus can also safeguard them from such risks.
Careless posts on social media by a child can come to him/her later in life. People have lost jobs due to posts they made on social media not pleasant to their employer. It's therefore important to tell kids to be responsible facebook users as its cost them a fortune.
How can we mitigate the risks faced by children online
The risks exposed to children in this digital era are many, but how do we minimize them and maximize the benefits of internet use to our children;
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| Image source:pixabay.com |
Intergenerational gap in terms of digital literacy exists,
there is therefore a need to train
teachers and parents on issues appertaining to children online safety.
Knowing the kind of people your child communicate with will protect the child alot.
In conclusion, the benefits of internet to children are many and the use of internet also exposes children to many risks. Therefore, children on their own are not safe in this digital era. With the help of parents and teachers, children can make most of the internet. Communication and creating awareness on the risks involved in the use of internet is the key part of this conversation.
Knowing the kind of people your child communicate with will protect the child alot.
In conclusion, the benefits of internet to children are many and the use of internet also exposes children to many risks. Therefore, children on their own are not safe in this digital era. With the help of parents and teachers, children can make most of the internet. Communication and creating awareness on the risks involved in the use of internet is the key part of this conversation.
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