Internet safety is main stream now. Gone are the days of “Another MySpace Predator!” and “To Catch A Predator.” There is not a lot associated with all-things-online that can shock us anymore. One of the leading safety research groups, as early as this past January, has declared the Internet safe.
Not only is the Internet is here to stay it’s now a part of our daily lives whether we TEXT, FLIX, IM or PIX.
However, the issues, problems or dangers – whatever you want to call them, online are still real. We’re just numb to them. And, by the way, the “experts” have discounted social networking from their study.
There is one continuing problem online today that is not going away and it’s more marginalized than ever - cyberbullying. I was reading the other day that 75% of the teens online say they have received a nasty email or text message. Their definition was that it was “something that made them uncomfortable.”
I don’t know if that stat is true or not. I do know that when I chat with the high school students I teach, they all seem to have been the receiver of at least one thing like that. None of them told anyone about it. A couple of them were really upset by it, too. They are more embarrassed at receiving it that they are emotionally upset at the content. Only weird kids get cyberbullied.
Cyberbullying doesn’t get its “due” in the media, either. It is somehow a shameful, almost stigmatized thing to be a cyberbully victim. It’s stigmatized by adults and educators, too. “It’s not my problem,” or “It’s the school’s problem,” or “It’s off campus,” is often followed by thoughts of, “That whimpy kid deserved it.”
The solutions are challenging since the problem is disowned by almost everyone involved. There is no comprehensive program, approach or effort to solutions to any great degree. The real solutions are pretty grassroots.
So, we’re going grassroots. “We” is my good pal Vanessa Van Petton from Radical Parenting. We’re starting a series on Cyberbullying - the biggest issue growing on the web today. Yes, there’s also a book coming out of it. Look for her perspective (she’s the young pretty one - rats!) and my ideas (I’m the jaded older one) on the topic.
We can take on cyberbullying with you and reduce its impact on kids. The good news is you don’t have to pull your hair out worrying that every time your kids go online that they’re going to meet a predator or a cyberbully. But don’t sit back and think there is no problem, either.
If the attention on the victim has not gone very far, then we’ll get to the cyberbullies to stop it. They won’t stop for a number of complicated reasons so we’re going directly to the source: the cyberbully’s parents.
If cyberbullies are as prevalent as we think, someone has to be their Mom or Dad. Chances are it’s every third person reading this post. Chances are you’re the parent of a cyberbully. Chances are even better you don’t even know it. You don’t have a clue.
We’ll help. We’re going to be revealing the tips on how to check your cyberbully at the door. Practical advice for both kids and parents and we’ll even be asking you what you think.
Did you teach them how to be safe online when using them, too?
Bad Santa!
Many of these electronic items allow Internet access or have the ability to send and receive messages, pictures and videos.
As a parent, you should realize that many of these allow your child to play with people from all over the world. They can also communicate with them.
So, it’s time to have a chat with your child about using any or all of these items. Here’s my 3 Post-Christmas Internet Safety Gaming Quick Tips:
1. Make sure your game player knows to not give out personal information to fellow game players. This
is information such as their names, ages, address, school or phone numbers.
2. Check the game system instructions for information about privacy controls and parental restrictions that can protect children.
3. Encourage children to report inappropriate contact with strangers, especially sexually suggestive comments, attempts and such.
For Your Tween
Just because these items connect to the Internet does not mean you actually have to do it. Assess what comfort level you have with your child alone online. Assess their ability to understand the most basic online safety skills. If either of these have the slightest uncomfortable feeling to it, do not connect them to the Internet. Neither you nor your child are ready to take on the world of online strangers at this time.
For Your Teen
Teach them to be part of the solution. Teens understand the Internet and its connections to others, especially people they don’t know. Make sure your teen readily accepts the responsibility to online safety practices in exchange for the privilege of being online, no matter if they TEXT, FLIX or PIX. Empowering them with trust and respect for themselves and others will go a long way.
You Bet! Its unfortunate but true. There are some scurrilous individuals around that play the “missing child” alert to scrape and steal email addresses for their spamming purposes.
Even child safety experts get side tracked by this.
The alert came via a business contact who emailed an Amber Alert to us. The alert mentioned a 13 year old girl missing in Ohio. It was sent via an email chain with innumerable addresses on it.
One of the respondents, a journalist colleague, shot back an email immediately saying it was a scam and how it works and why it is potentially being sent around.
How did he know? How can you understand what is a phishing scam and what is not? Here’s what he knew and how you can start to pick out the scams, too, and protect yourself.
First, stay calm. “Oh No! Another Child Missing! Let’s help!” is a natural reaction. That is my point, it’s a reaction. Take time to read further.
Two, true and valid Amber Alerts do not come as singular emails forwarded on from individual to individual.
Third, check to see if the email address is valid or a dead link.
As a rule, whenever you get questionable stuff like this type of email, go to Google. Simply enter it in the Google search box and add the word urbanlegend. Or, you can go to www.snopes.com.
With these two tools you can find out very quickly whether it is real or not. The second thing that people are not aware of is that often these emails are used to gather email addresses for email spamming. If you scroll down you can see everyone who every got this line… when you get those ads for breast enlargement etc, you know where it came from!
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