Category: Online Safety for Kids

Most teenagers are unaware that their online presence leaves a trail that leads back to them. Everything they do online is not only difficult to remove, but it can also impact their future. From applying to college to getting their foot in the door in a career, digital footprints can make or break a teen’s future and goals if they aren’t careful.

Good Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is the way you behave online. When you were a teen, you didn’t have to worry so much about the repercussions of your actions catching up with you. Teens today should be aware and use caution in interacting socially online. Social media is designed to connect with peers but can easily be used for bullying. That funny meme might seem to be worth sharing at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t affect you negatively professionally.

Be careful when choosing what to put out there in the digital world. If you’re unsure if something would be appropriate to share, take a screenshot of it and send it to a select few. It is essential to teach your teen that good digital citizenship will follow them into college and their chosen career path. It is not uncommon for colleges to rescind acceptance letters for behavior they see on social media platforms.

Dangers of a Digital Footprint

Cyberbullying is a harmful use of social media that is an ongoing challenge that will only worsen without proper guidance for our teens. More than 30,000 suicide deaths occur each year in the U.S. Cyberbullying plays a significant role in this suicide rate because it targets teens that could already be suffering from depression or another disorder. Cyberbullying might seem harmless to some teens, but written words can be easily misinterpreted and taken out of context.

Teens should be careful even when they are joking about what they say on social media. They are leaving a breadcrumb trail that will stay with them forever. It is doubtful that your teen would intentionally hurt someone, but ensure they know the dangers of how their words can be misconstrued. Tell them about the game of telephone where something is whispered into a person’s ear, and then it’s passed around the room. More often than not, the said phrase is not the same once it travels around the room. Teach your teen that their words matter.

Restrict Access To Personal Information

Set guidelines for what your children should share online and what they should keep private. Educate them on the parameters of safely sharing information. They should know not to ever share sensitive information no matter the circumstances. If they question something, encourage them to come to you to be sure before they enter anything they’re unsure of. Don’t wait until something happens to create guidelines for them. They should never share their phone number or address anywhere online.

Parents should also be careful about what they post online about their children. You may unknowingly put them at risk when posting about them online.  For example, if your child gets an reward about school refrain from naming the school.

Negative Digital Footprint Impacts

There are numerous harmful impacts that your teen’s digital footprint can have on their future. College admissions and military recruiting officers can and will take notice of your teen’s digital presence when considering their application. Employers and internships will also look up your teen online when considering them for a position.

Recruiters and coaches will look at your teen’s profiles when considering open positions on their team for colleges. Your teen is also at risk for identity theft every time they post online. Photos shared online are fair game for identity theft. Scholarships for college and internships often ask candidates for their social media profiles to peruse before considering them as applicants.

Anonymity Doesn’t Exist

Privacy doesn’t exist online. There is always someone watching, whether it’s an identity theft attempt, a cyberattack or the government through the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The ECPA authorizes the government’s admission to your files and folders online. The digital communications they can access are Facebook messages, email, your cloud and others.

The Library of Congress is saving tweets from Twitter for future generations. So, your anonymity is nonexistent. Urge your teens to stop and consider their content before they post it. Encourage them not to be impulsive and leave private conversations off of social media. Nothing online is temporary. Once it’s out there, it’s out and hard to remove even after it’s been deleted.

Enable Privacy Settings

Ensure all of your teen’s social media platforms are set to private. Make sure they have their location turned off on apps like Snapchat. They should know about numerous privacy settings if they’re allowed to use social media. Twitter has tweet protection where your followers are the only ones that see your tweets, besides the Library of Congress.

Apps like Instagram and Facebook have options to make your profiles private, so only people you choose can access the information you share. Keep track of your accounts and delete the ones you don’t use frequently. This will make it easier to maintain your digital footprint and gives you a smaller chance of data breach.

Center Stage

Social media has taken center stage in the way children communicate with each other. The game of telephone has become a thing of the past. Do you remember having to ask your parents to call someone long distance? What about call waiting or eavesdropping on your siblings’ conversations from the second phone in the house? It’s a whole new era now. Advise your children how easily they are susceptible to dangers online and encourage them to be selective and protected when posting content.

About the Author
Ava Roman (she/her) is the Managing Editor of Revivalist, a women’s lifestyle magazine that empowers women to live their most authentic life. When Ava is not writing you’ll find her in a yoga class, advocating for her children or whipping up something delicious in the kitchen!

School’s out, and that means your kids have lots of time free to spend online chatting, making plans with friends, and posting fun summertime photos—sometimes without you there to supervise. If that gives you anxiety, fear not. Here are four steps that will keep keep your child safe online this summer.

Set Rules for Responsible Use

Sit down with your children and talk frankly about why you care about their internet safety, covering big topics like cyberbullying or identity theft in a way that matches their maturity level. Then work together to define clear, understandable rules for their online interactions. Here are a few basics to consider:

• Never post personal info like addresses and phone numbers on social media.

• Avoid location check-ins and photo geo-tagging, which can be used to track where you are as well as when you are away from home.

• Be wary of free games and other goodies, which can infect your devices with malware. Keep security software up to date and scan everything before downloading.

• Use secure passwords and protect them. There are several password managers out there that can generate strong passwords and store them all in one place.

Once you’ve agreed upon the ground rules for online safety, put them into a contract to be signed by everyone in the family.

Follow Your Own Rules

This is an important follow-up to the previous rule. You want your kids not to text or go online after 10 p.m.? Shut down your phone and laptop at the same time.

Don’t want them posting embarrassing photos of you? Let them veto pictures they may not be happy with you sharing on social media, too.

If you can adhere to the rules you and your kids built together, they will feel more inclined to do so as well.

Build Your Child’s Critical Thinking Skills

In a world abounding with fake news, help your kids think critically about any content they find online. Encourage older kids especially to fact-check stories before reposting on Facebook or commenting on Twitter.

Teach them to question their own motives as well. Just because a comment will generate a lot of likes, that doesn’t mean they should post it. Even one poorly chosen post can cause problems down the line.

The Family Online Safety Institute has also developed a checklist that includes reminders to remove and untag unwanted posts, and to “accentuate the positive” by posting upbeat content.

Let Your Kids Know You Will Still Monitor Online Usage

Finally, let your kids know that you may occasionally check up on their activity. Being upfront about your plans to look at their browser history and monitor their accounts will establish a sense of trust and keep them accountable.

Also, consider working with them to limit their time spend on social media during the many free hours that come with having a long school break.  

For young kids who need a bit more oversight, there are plenty of helpful apps available to let you keep an eye on them.

Older kids and teens may not need (or want) as much monitoring, so for them, you may be able to check in less often. To really emphasize trust, you can even ask them to put their passwords into a piggy bank for use only in an emergency.

The internet can be a great resource for helping kids learn and be social during their school-free summer months, and following the steps listed here will help them do so smartly, responsibly, and safely.

Sun Safety for Kids | How To Help Them Be Protected

YouTube is one of the most engaging platforms. So engaging, in fact, that even our children are getting hooked. What they don’t realize is that too much time on YouTube is potentially developmentally damaging. As parents, it’s up to us to shield our children from the adverse effects of too much time on YouTube.

We can start by replacing that time with enriching activities our children will love. These five tips can help you make the transition.

Discuss the Harmful Effects of YouTube

It’s essential to discuss the harmful effects of YouTube with your children in a way they can understand. If they can genuinely resonate with and comprehend what you’re saying to them, they’ll be more likely to decrease their use of YouTube willingly.

Talk in-depth about how too much YouTube can result in not getting enough time to do things together like read. Reading to your child can provide them with various developmental skills, including the desire to read more by themselves. Reading is integral to academic and professional success. Be transparent about how not learning to read effectively can stall their progression in life.

Discuss how social media can affect their mental health as well. Ask them if they’ve experienced any of what you’re talking about while using YouTube to help them resonate with the discussion even more. Allow them to open up about how they feel about limiting their use of the platform.

Once you discuss the harmful effects of YouTube with your children, the next step is limiting their screen time. Your children won’t like it at first, but restricting their screen time will emphasize how serious you are. You can reduce their screen time in phases so that it isn’t such a shock to your kids.

When you limit your children’s screen time, you must fill it with off-screen activities like sports.

Encourage Participation in Sports

Sports are fantastic for children of all ages. Not only do sports get your kids out of the house and offline, but they can also teach them skills they can take with them into adulthood. For example, they can learn to take constructive criticism when working with coaches or how to develop a solid work ethic.

If your children aren’t interested in traditional sports, look for creative alternatives like eSports. They can participate in sport-like competitions online while still honing soft skills like teamwork, problem-solving, and self-confidence.

Whether eSports or traditional sports, find out which specific ones your children want to participate in. Sign them up and see how things progress.

In addition to sports, explore creative passions with your children.

Explore Creative Passions

You’ll start to hear less and less about YouTube if you encourage your children to explore their creative passions. Instead of YouTube being an outlet, replace it with a creative activity.

Nudge your kids to explore their offline creative passions before diving into any online. Then, do your best to make those creative passions a part of your children’s daily to draw their attention away from YouTube slowly. Before you know it, they’ll be more interested in exploring their creativity.

Creative passions can be a part of your children’s self-care, too.  They can also learn how to engage online safely including while on YouTube.

Prioritize Self-Care

Make self-care a priority for you and your children. When you prioritize self-care, you teach your children how to love and honor themselves. You give them a chance to get to know themselves. You also provide them an opportunity to appreciate being present.

To prioritize self-care, the first step is to have an initial conversation with your children about what self-care is and why it’s crucial. Next, work with them to develop a list of self-care activities unique to their interests and needs.

Then, categorize these activities by whether they’ll be done daily, weekly, monthly, or less often. Once they’re categorized, put them on the calendar. Have your kids check them off as they’re completed to keep them enthusiastic about self-care.

Also, be sure you’re making a consistent effort with self-care and the rest of the activities above.

Be Consistent

Consistency is key in most things, especially in your attempts to decrease your children’s time on YouTube. You’ll quickly fall back into your old YouTube habits without a consistent effort. So, be consistent in making this a lifestyle change.

Here are a few ideas to stay consistent in your efforts to decrease the use of YouTube in your household:

• Create a daily schedule for your children
• Strengthen your mindset and help your kids do the same
• Designate a specific time to turn off electronics each night
• Reinforce the positive changes your children are making constantly
• Stick to a family schedule regarding when and how long everyone can use YouTube each day

Ultimately, be consistent to ensure offline activities become the norm over hours of video content on YouTube every day.

Conclusion

The developmental dangers of YouTube aren’t something to take lightly. It’s essential to protect yourself and your children from videos and other digital content that negatively impacts growth.

You can do so by first being transparent about the harmful effects of YouTube with your children to help them understand why you’re implementing new boundaries around screen time.

Then, focus on off-screen activities like sports, self-care, and creative passions your children are interested in. And finally, be consistent with your efforts to guide your kids away from YouTube and toward a fuller, real life.

About the Author
Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in education, mental health, family lifestyle and online safety. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. You can follow her on Twitter.

WhatsApp is a renowned app that is used by a huge number of individuals all over the world. WhatsApp is mostly used for communication, exchanging pics, videos, audio, etc., among families and friends. This social media tool also has its business usage, as it enables the sharing of documents, files, locations, and many more for business purposes.

However, WhatsApp is widely trending among teens and kids. They love to share pics, videos, memes, GIFs, texts, etc., with their friends and families. WhatsApp also has audio and video call features, making it more popular and exciting. But, Is it safe for kids?

As a parent, you want to ensure your kid’s safety from physical or digital threats and dangers. As WhatsApp is one of your kid’s favorite social media platforms and uses it more often, you must be curious about this social media app and its risks.

You’ll need to monitor WhatsApp with your kids to safeguard them from any digital threats. In this article, we’ve included answers to all of your questions related to WhatsApp and methods of how you can protect your kids.

What Is WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is a social media messaging application that allows users to communicate with one another using their mobile devices. The program is free to use because it uses standard internet data.

It is compatible with all major smartphone platforms. Users must first create and confirm their account with a normal mobile phone number to use the app. In addition to phone and video calls, WhatsApp allows users to share photos, voice notes, emojis, location, etc.

WhatsApp is a prominent instant messaging software with over one billion downloads and is the most widely used app worldwide. Is it, however, secure for your kids to use? Although WhatsApp allows users to communicate, there are certain security risks when kids use it. This article will address these issues and provide a solution.

Is WhatsApp Safe For Kids?

WhatsApp can be risky and unsafe for kids and teens, even though it is a beneficial service for many adults. It is not appropriate to think the platform is trouble-free and overlook the necessity for monitoring.

Some kids and teens prefer WhatsApp to be normal messaging because they think their parents are unfamiliar with it. As a result, kids and teens may feel that they will not be caught sending inappropriate WhatsApp messages.

Apart from this, as we all know, the internet is full of online predators, spammers, hackers, and many other internet-based criminals. These criminals can lure your kids into unethical activities or can leak their crucial information and data. Pedophiles can also target your kids via WhatsApp, or your kids can be a target of spammers, cyberbullying, fake news, etc.

Like any other texting or messaging service, WhatsApp can be used to transmit and receive offensive photos and videos. It can also be used for cyberbullying and propagating rumors on the internet because of its group chat features and ability to effortlessly forward messages to multiple friends.

What Are The Risks Associated With WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is not completely secure for kids; there are risks and dangers of WhatsApp if used without proper guidance and knowledge. WhatsApp is also considered a platform for spammers, hackers, pedophiles, and other criminal-minded individuals who can lure your kids into inappropriate activities.

Here’s a list of some of the  potential risks associated with WhatsApp:

1.    Cyberbullying:

Kids use WhatsApp primarily for group texts, and they can accommodate groups of up to 250 kids. So if a piece of fake information or rumor is spread, a harsh comment is made, or a fight arises, things can quickly escalate and spill outside of the WhatsApp context.

2.    Sexting:

Although there are other popular apps that are used for sexting, such as Snapchat, Kik Messenger, and Burnnote, sexting is another bad side effect of kids using WhatsApp. Unfortunately, WhatsApp is powerless to control this content. You, as a parent, must be aware that this circumstance exists and that it can have an impact on your kids.

3.    Privacy Breach:

While kids believe WhatsApp protects their screenshots and other information, this is not the case. You can also download private conversations and photographs. Another threat to privacy is the app’s user data collection, which can be seen.

4.    Fake News and Scams:

Scams and false information abound on social media. Your kids are rarely old enough to distinguish between what is true and what is false. As WhatsApp allows users to communicate in groups of up to 250 people, it’s simple for information to spread quickly, even if it’s incorrect.

5.    Pedophilia:

It is impossible to deny that there are not only decent individuals in the world and that those with terrible motives might appear to be trustworthy friends. Under the pretense of not being loved, they groom kids to defy and reject their parents.

When the kids are unprotected from predators, they can be subjected to sexting, kidnapping, and other forms of abuse.

WhatsApp Safety Tips For Kids

Now that you’ve known about the potential threats associated with WhatsApp, you’ll want to ensure your kid’s safety from those threats and dangers. Keeping your kids safe from internet-based threats and criminals is very crucial.

Here are a few tips for you to ensure your kid’s safety while using WhatsApp:

1.    Download and Discuss The App:

WhatsApp is a simple to use and trending social media platform. Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the app with your kids once you’ve mastered the basics. This can be a beneficial step to ensure your kid’s safety.

2.    Guide Your Kids:

Consider making a personal family WhatsApp group if your kids use WhatsApp. Teach your kids how to create a safe profile, use safety features to their advantage, block unknown persons, and many more. Use this opportunity to tell them about the app’s benefits and drawbacks.

3.    Monitor Your Kid’s devices and Social Media:

When your kids utilize social media applications, there are many things to think about and pay attention to. To begin with, monitoring content, think about using both security and filtering tools.

You can keep an eye on your kid’s screen time and social media activities and actions. You can take the help of third-party parental controls application like MobileSpy or ClevGaurd. However, we recommend using MobileSpy for its vast range of attractive features and affordable price.

4.    Talk About Privacy Settings:

Encourage your kids to choose the two-step verification option, which allows your kid to create a personalized PIN for more security against breaches and hackers. You can also guide them about the importance of privacy settings and help them set up the privacy settings for their WhatsApp accounts.

5.    Avoid Strangers And Strange Links:

If someone outside your kid’s known circle obtains their phone number, they can transmit any content directly to your kid’s WhatsApp. They can use WhatsApp to catfish, trick, or groom individuals.

Discuss the significance of only conversing with individuals they know and trust and blocking messages from strangers with your kid. Stranger’s messages may include explicit content, spyware, spam, or a phishing link.

6.    Control Location Sharing:

When the location sharing option is enabled, your kid’s photograph shared on WhatsApp will include their actual location when the photo was taken. Be careful of this and contemplate disabling location services.

Conclusion

WhatsApp is a useful tool for communicating with friends and families. While WhatsApp is generally a secure messenger service, it’s crucial to discuss expectations and enforce safe online practices before your kid uses it.

However, every family and kid is unique and is permitted to use the app of their personal choice. If your kids are using the application with your permission, one method to help them traverse the risk zone is to have an open and honest dialogue about safety. We’ve included some WhatsApp safety tips for kids in this article.