Is your child being cyber-bullied?
Chances are if your child is being bullied online they may not be telling you about it. Read our essential tips for parents to ensure their children?s safety online.
Cyber safety expert Jeff Brookes, Regional Director Asia Pacific of Sulake (owners of Habbo Australia, a moderated online playground for Australian teenagers) recommends parents take an active role in knowing what their children are doing online.
Brookes has compiled easy to follow advice on how parents can make sure their children are safer online, and more aware of the dark alleys that may exist along the information highway.
?With cyber safety becoming a major issue for young Australians, and the increasing occurrences of cyber bullying, it is more important than ever to not only equip teenagers but also parents with simple and effective ways to keep their children safe online,? explains Brookes.
Jeff Brookes recommends the following tips to help parents stay involved in their children?s virtual life:
1. Keep the computer in a central part of the house.
Putting a computer in your child?s bedroom will only alienate you from their online activities. Even if you aren?t able to see what they are typing you, having the computer in the most used part of the house will allow parents to be able to see their children?s reactions to certain things that are happening on the screen.
2. Keep yourself informed.
The same way as a parent would inspect a school before enrolling their children, parents should also investigate the websites children are spending their time on. For example, if your child has a favourite social networking website make your own profile so you understand how the site works and you can see what kind of people ?hang out? on the site.
3. Share the online experience.
Experience the online space together and share your online experiences. Keeping the communication lines open will allow your child to feel more at ease to approach you if there is anything wrong. For example: share your favourite websites and talk about what you like most about it. If you notice something that looks out of the ordinary or potentially dangerous point it out to your children and explain why you think that is.
4. Include your children in decision making.
Make agreements together with your children on how much time they spend online. Mutually agreeing on sites they can go to and being open and non-judgmental to the websites they actually want to spend time on is important.
5. Do your research.
Research the social networking websites that your children use and make sure that they are professionally moderated. Also, always check the minimum age registration requirements for the sites.
6. Be open and honest about installing Internet filters.
Be open about filters that you would like to install and monitoring programs such as Net Nanny and explain how this is for their safety. This way your children will understand why you are trying to protect them, and that you are only trying to increase their positive experiences online.
7. Continually reinforce online safety rules.
As children are often na?ve, they sometimes just need a little guidance and persistence to remember how they should behave online. This includes: making sure personal details stay personal and not purchasing anything online without permission. Go through the ?report? features of the website together, as this will give your child a sense of empowerment and will allow them to be able to take the appropriate action steps when necessary.
8. Make sure your children keep their personal information and photos private.
The best preventative measure for online bullying is not posting personal details online.
- Make sure your children understand that any photos they make available online could stay online forever, and that people can take their information and photos and post them on other websites without their permission. The less information your children make available online the less danger they are in.
- Discuss privacy settings with your child. They need to understand that they should only be letting people they are friends with see their profile. Allowing just anybody to look at it can result to identity theft, stalkers or the wrong type of person approaching them.
9. Don?t ignore the warning signs.
If your children see anything that makes them feel uncomfortable, or you think that something is not quite right with a website they are viewing, act immediately and report it to the site?s moderators/owners. If your children are being harassed online, don?t respond back to the bully or suspicious person. The best thing to do is to ignore the sender, block or delete them, and report them directly to the website owners or moderators. It?s also always good to keep harassing/threatening messages as evidence if this issue does get escalated.
Discuss these issues and more in our internet and technology forum.
