It’s the age of social sharing. Be it pictures from your kid’s birthday party or your recent trip to an exotic location, you want the world to know! We do not realise how quickly the kids learn from us. While we may still be a little discreet with our sharing, know how to use our privacy settings, I am not sure how many have educated their kids on the same. I know of so many friends whose kids under the age of 18 have their own Facebook and twitter accounts. While they might be sharing updates and pictures innocently, there is also an evil side lurking in the dark. There are newer and constantly evolving forms of cyber threats which can plague the lives of children. Given the amount of time spent by kids online these days, it has become important and necessary for parents to be involved in their child’s online life and monitor their behaviour. With these internet safety concerns for kids in mind, we decided to seek expert help from Cybermum India, the online safety evangelist at Intel Security.
A little introduction to Cybermum. Cybermum India is an initiative by Intel Security that educates parents on different ways to keep their kids safe in the virtual world. The Cybermum initiative was launched in India after its success in US and Australia where thousands of kids, teens and parents have been educated by Intel Security.
Cybermum India – Anindita Mishra
Anindita Mishra, Cybermum India, is a teacher and mother of two. She has always been a vocal advocate for issues tied to children’s welfare and development. Leveraging the Cybermum platform and by contributing to various newspapers, online journals and kids focused magazines, she makes a concerted effort to engage with concerned parents and educate them on precautions and steps they should take in order to protect their loved ones in cyberspace. Anindita connects with concerned parents through her Blog and other social media like twitter and facebook.
To learn more about Internet safety for your family visit www.mcafee.com/family. When we interviewed Anindita, we had a lot of concerns. This is an excerpt of the interview.
- As a parent how can we get alerts and monitor our kids visiting banned sites?
Children of the current generation are digital natives who spend a lot of their time online with the help of their gadgets. Networking, gaming, learning and discovery are some of the most common online activities. However, in many cases, they are able to navigate and explore the internet more efficiently than their parents/ guardians. This can often leave a gap between what they are doing online and how aware their parents are of these activities and parents are often hesitant about having to deal with this new avenue of stress. In fact According to the McAfee Teens, Tweens and Technology Survey, 2014 only 46% of the youth said their parents have had a conversation with them about online safety and 52% say their parents simply don’t care.
I am of the firm belief that parents need to first bring themselves up to speed on the following:
- Popular platforms and content: It is important to have at least a basic understanding of how these platforms work as well as make themselves familiar with the kind of content tweens and teens consume online. This will give them a sense of the potential risks
- Available safeguards: This implies not just in terms of security software but also the various privacy settings on social networks.
Today’s digital security options offer a wonderful parent-friendly feature called parental controls. Softwares like McAfee Total Protection, McAfee Internet Security and McAfee LiveSafe include this feature. This will allow parents to regulate internet access timings for individual child, select a list of ‘allowed’ sites as per age and need of each child and get remote information if child breaches rules, exchanges inappropriate language or connects with a stranger. All this in the full knowledge of the children. Isn’t that wonderful?
- How do we monitor kids online activity without affecting their privacy?
Privacy is important to all of us, more so to a growing tween or teen. Young adults need their space and when they are offered this option, they often develop a stronger bond with their parents.
First step should involve talking to your children upfront about your apprehensions pertaining to the virtual world, the presence of strangers there and the way truth and facts are distorted. Let them know that you support their interest in technology and internet but are aware that, just like in the real world, there are diverse kinds of people online. And therefore, you would like it if they allow you to be a part of their online presence. Reiterate that you love and trust them but not the strangers online. And affirm that you will neither intervene nor make your presence felt, so as not to cause the child any embarrassment. But you should assert that they bring your attention to any untoward incident that they face online.
The next step should entail setting up robust parental controls, after discussing with your child the timings that are agreeable to you both and the sites you would like to ban or allow. Let the child know that they can have their privacy but you will receive information about their online activities. And if they breach rules, there would be penalties. This would keep kids on their toes, but they would accept as they would have their privacy. Read More
- While sharing pics on the internet, we go crazy, how safe is that? The teens are even more non-committal about sharing.
Most digital natives revel in the ability to instantly share all information, and they appreciate the ability to connect with a maximum number of people online with ease and at one-go. As such it is likely that they go overboard sharing their lives with their family and friends on social media platforms. Moreover, social media platforms like Instagram have become a craze with new mothers, foodies, amateur photographers, and adventure-lovers alike, by clicking and sharing personal information, often being unmindful of the long-term consequences of their actions.
As long as it is a generic photograph of scenery, a pet or a project, it is okay to share with like-minded groups and enjoy the interactions. But these are open platforms that can be viewed by all. So a post of children and their activities can attract all sorts of attention-not all of them positive. There are platforms where teens upload pictures to get rated and then suffer from depression if they receive a lot of negative responses.
Many kids are reticent but for those that are not, I believe that the adults need to set an example in this respect. If they do desire to share all their family photos, they need to have a separate account with select friends who will neither share nor download their content. Better still, create albums and share links with only those you want to. It is unsafe to share pictures of kids openly, considering the number of cyber criminals online. Same goes for teen parties because colleges and companies often check online profiles of probable candidates. Similarly, if they post a picture of their family going off on a vacation, you are likely offering an open invitation to burglars in your absence.
Sometimes, images and videos go viral and can become matter for cyberbullying. So one has to be cautious about what one shares online.
- Parents need to still get accustomed to Twitter whereas teens are far more active. With teens sharing pictures and personal life updates, how safe is this?
Parents should ensure that there some ground rules are set for teens signing up on any social media platform, including Twitter. They need to keep privacy settings at maximum and control who they would like to friend. Further, parents should ensure that their kids follow simple cyber etiquette like being diplomatic, restrained and polite. Further, they should ensure that kids are educated against stalking or spamming celebrities.
Twitter is a wonderful way to get real-time news, connect with new people and broaden horizons. But teens have to remember they will be responsible for whatever they post. If their posts attract negative attention and trolls, they might face a lot of flak and abuse. Inflammatory and abusive content might attract legal consequences. If they share pictures, there can be another set of consequences, and they need to be prepared for that, including derisive comments. Moreover, pictures can be retweeted and they may attract all kinds of unwanted attention. Also, they shouldn’t trust everyone or everything they see on Twitter. Fact verification is a must. They also need to keep in mind that anything that is in public domain can be recovered from taking screenshots of the original post, even after they delete it on their own page. So teens signing up for Twitter must remember that safety is in their own hands and act accordingly.
- A lot of people check in at the location they are at. How safe is this?
It all depends on how much of your private life you would like to make public. There are apps (like Swarm- Foursquare etc) that allow people to track/check who is in their vicinity and a teen’s location wouldn’t be safe if it shows up on a stranger’s search without the kid’s approval. Additionally, strangers who follow you online could get an opportunity to connect in person if they happen to be nearby. Given this reason, I think it’s scary to use applications to share your exact location with the online world, especially if you are alone. To avoid this, teens should not check in at locations randomly and keep their phone’s location-based service switched off.
These were some major concerns we had and could think of, I am sure as parents you have a lot more questions, and I am sure after this post you have a few up your sleeve, so do let us know and if possible we might ask Anindita to answer those as well.
