Decoding the Digital World: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Online Safety
Remember the days when "stranger danger" meant warning your kids about accepting sweets from unfamiliar faces in the park? Those were…
Remember the days when "stranger danger" meant warning your kids about accepting sweets from unfamiliar faces in the park? Those were simpler times. Whilst the real world still holds its share of risks, today’s parents face a whole new battleground beyond the screen: the online world.
Children aren’t just visiting the online world anymore – they practically live there. Social media, gaming, online learning – it’s all part of the fabric of their daily lives. But with this increased connectivity comes a host of new challenges. Cyberbullying, online predators and exposure to inappropriate content are just a few of the digital dangers lurking behind the screen.
Navigating this complex landscape can feel overwhelming, but it’s crucial for parents to be engaged and informed. This post will explore the unique challenges of raising teens in the digital age and offer practical strategies to help you protect your child and foster a healthy relationship with technology.
The stats above show you just how large a role the online world plays in the lives of young adults in this modern age and the balance is all out of whack. From a young age, these days tablets and mobile phones are chucked at children the way we used to have dummies shoved in our gobs!
This leads to a reliance on mobile devices for everything as they get older, leading to comments like “It’s on the internet so it must be true” and also leads to adults who lack interpersonal skills which are vitally important for their futures.
Talk about it: Tips for a meaningful conversation
If you have read any of my previous articles you will know that communication is the key to helping to protect your children online. If you are not approachable and open to these conversations most children these days are more technically advanced than you and will be more than capable of hiding their activity from you therefore you need to be in a position where they can identify when something is off and then come to you for advice and assistance.
Make sure your child knows they can come to you if they’re upset by something they’ve seen online and make sure that you listen and don’t overreact — the important thing is that they have come to you for help and support.
Tell them you trust them to do the right thing rather than over-monitoring their internet use, that doesn't mean you should not be taking an interest though.
If your child comes to you with an issue, stay calm and listen without judging them and don’t threaten to take away their devices.
Tackle peer pressure by explaining that if they’re talked into bullying someone online or sending inappropriate images it may get reported to their school or even the police.
Talk to them about how much time they spend online and make sure this is balanced against other activities.
Discuss how they can report any harmful or inappropriate content or behaviour that they encounter online — empower them to take control themselves.
Keep Talking
Stay interested in their online activities and discuss their encounters. Don’t shy away from tough topics like cyberbullying, sexting, and pornography. Help them critically evaluate online content and assess the quality and reliability of sources.
Acknowledge the difficulty of this, considering how online content can be manipulated to persuade even the most discerning individuals. Discuss strategies for managing these challenges and emphasize their importance.
Manage Their Online Reputation
Explain that anything they upload, email, or message could remain online permanently. Remind them to only post content they wouldn’t mind you, their teacher, or a future employer seeing. Numerous media stories underscore the importance of online reputation and demonstrate how past actions can resurface later.
Adjust Controls
Utilise parental controls on your broadband and internet-enabled devices, adjusting them based on your child’s age. Learn how to set up safe search in Google through the Google Safety Centre. Remember that at this age, they likely have friends with unfiltered devices, so combine parental controls and filtering with open dialogue and discussion.
Privacy Matters
Ensure they use high privacy settings on social networks. Encourage regular password changes and discourage sharing personal details like phone numbers, addresses, or school information online.
Stay Safe on the Move
Activate safety and privacy settings on their mobile devices and limit the sharing of private information. Be mindful that public WiFi might not filter inappropriate content, so look for friendly WiFi symbols when out and about. Encourage the use of parental control tools on their devices in case they connect to unfiltered WiFi, such as at a friend’s house.
Teach your child some simple rules
Make sure your child knows how to block abusive comments and report content that worries them.
Teach them to respect others online and think about comments before they post them and discuss how easily comments made online can be misinterpreted.
Don’t arrange to meet people in real life that they’ve only talked to online and remind them that some people may not be who they say they are.
Advise them to use secure and legal sites to download music and games to avoid experiencing the risks associated with streaming content from unauthorised sites.
Check attachments and pop-ups for viruses before they click or download anything. Alternatively don’t click links but go to the site itself and search for what they need.
An excellent resource for discussions on the subject is a site called internetmatters.org
They provide information on how to deal with any specific issues you may encounter with your child; such as cyberbullying, finding inappropriate content, privacy and identity theft, your child’s online reputation, online pornography and child grooming.
As always I am here for a chat on any subject I have highlighted in this or any of my other articles. If there is something I have not covered that you would like to chat about please do reach out to me as there is nothing more important than helping to protect children from the dark elements that I know are hidden in the online world and enabling you to communicate with your children is a large part of that.
