Contents
- Online child safety and parenting
- “Do not post personal information and photographs on the Internet.”
- “Do not download or install anything from the Internet without parental permission.”
- “Do not communicate and do not meet with those whom you have never seen”
- “Do not open letters that came from an unfamiliar address”
- “Come up with secure logins and passwords, keep them secret, even from your best friends.”
- “Be polite, do not offend other Internet users”
- “If you want to pay for something on the Internet, first ask your parents for permission.”
- “Use your webcam only when chatting with friends”
- “Remember: everything that got into the Internet cannot be removed from there”
- “If someone offended you on the Internet, tell your parents about it.”
Online child safety and parenting
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Despite the abundance of gadgets and the full availability of the Internet, modern schoolchildren are little familiar with some of the dangers of the virtual environment.
How to properly respond to suggestions or insults from strangers? What information should not be shared with virtual friends?
How to stay safe while sitting at the computer? Unlike the rules of behavior on the street, not all adults have answers to these questions for the virtual world.
“Our children are at great risk every day,” says Elena Zolotilova, President of the Regional Resource Center for Violence Prevention and expert trainer of the Safe Environment program. – On the Internet, a child can easily find texts, pictures, videos that promote violence and aggression. In addition, he may be subjected to harassment and persecution: the so-called recruiters can involve a child in an environment of violence, including sexual violence. It is far from a secret that pornography, drug trafficking and other criminal offenses are widespread on the Internet. Therefore, parents should try to ensure the information security of their children. There are special rules for finding children on the Internet, which must be conveyed to the child in an accessible form ”.
Below we invite you to familiarize yourself with the basic rules of a safe Internet:
“Do not post personal information and photographs on the Internet.”
Increasingly, attackers are using the Internet as a channel to trick children into revealing personal information. Tell your child that photos or information about him or his family members that he has posted on the Internet can be used and disseminated by malefactors for personal gain.
“Do not download or install anything from the Internet without parental permission.”
Tell your child that a malicious file can be hidden under the guise of a game or movie that can harm the home computer. Check the page from which the child is going to download something for viruses. Make sure the content is not violent or sexually explicit. Also, tell the children that any material posted on the web has an author. Any misuse of it will result in liability.
“Do not communicate and do not meet with those whom you have never seen”
Attackers establish contacts on social networks, forums, chat rooms or email, and this is a direct threat to the safety of children. Criminals often pose as the victim’s peer, which makes it easy for them to meet in person. It is very important to explain to children that they should not communicate with strangers on the Internet, and in no case should they meet with them.
“Do not open letters that came from an unfamiliar address”
Try to control your child’s access to all real-time communications, such as chats, instant messages, or email. Explain to your child that not everything that can be seen on the Internet is true. At best, emails from unknown addresses may contain advertisements. And at worst – a message from an Internet criminal posing as a well-wisher.
“Come up with secure logins and passwords, keep them secret, even from your best friends.”
Tell the children to keep confidential information private, not only from strangers, but also from friends. Passwords and logins can be used for personal gain by anyone. Tell your child about the most common types of fraud. For example, about using someone else’s page or mailbox to send advertisements.
“Be polite, do not offend other Internet users”
Explain to your child that the Web is not a place for bullying, insults, threats, or gossip. Ask your child about what he saw on the Internet, follow what he does there, pay attention to his mood. Try to get the child to talk about all the unusual experiences that happened to him on the web.
“If you want to pay for something on the Internet, first ask your parents for permission.”
Bank card data is a very important thing, and the child should be aware of this. Children must inform their parents before using the card data. Tell your child that if you are not careful, scammers can take your money illegally. Check the site that offers the purchase. On some pages today, special payment gateways have been made for entering bank data. If there is such a gateway, you can be sure that the payment is secure.
“Use your webcam only when chatting with friends”
Internet criminals try to establish contact with potential victims by all available means, including using a webcam. Try to be aware of the details of your child’s communication with anyone on the Internet.
“Remember: everything that got into the Internet cannot be removed from there”
Explain to your child that files posted on the Internet can be illegally used and distributed by other people. This means that it will be very difficult to remove the stolen information.
“If someone offended you on the Internet, tell your parents about it.”
If a child has become a victim of aggression, help him find a way out of this situation. Explain that you should never respond in kind to hurtful words. If you can’t solve the problem peacefully, you should leave the resource and delete your information from there. In addition, today almost all sites have moderators – people who follow what users write. Such a person can complain about the offender, whose profile will then be blocked. If the moderator for some reason cannot do this, contact the site administration and demand that the aggressor’s page be removed.
“And also, remember! – Elena Zolotilova recommends. – For the safety of your child, it is better to immediately set restrictions on the computer for independent access to the Internet.
Use modern programs that filter website content and help control where you visit on the Web.
And most importantly, discuss this with the children. They must understand the need for such prohibitions. “
We remind our readers that the Safe Environment program is initiated by the Regional Resource Center for Violence Prevention, an autonomous non-profit organization, and the project is supported by Gazprom Invest. For the entire period since December 2014, more than 5000 children, students of grades 1-4, in Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar and Anapa have attended an interactive educational course on safety, which includes both repeating traffic rules and teaching children the basics of security online.
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