Parenting- Tools and Resources to Protect Kids Online...

Kids today have a different perception of the computer and the Internet.  Children in elementary school are being taught how to use a computer.  Some school reports require Internet sources.  Teaching your children about the Internet and setting some rules will keep them safer.

First, help your children understand that seeing something on the Internet doesn’t make it real.  Friends whom they meet might not really be children.  Help them to understand that the Internet makes everyone anonymous.

Peter Johnson, a real-life analyst at Netsmartz 411 says, “information is available for everyone.  Any interesting party, parents, guardians and teachers can access over a thousand documents with the most updated information about parental control in Facebook and MySpace to a phone device.”

Netsmartz 411 is a program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.  They have real life analysts who are experts in Internet safety and can provide parents with all the necessary steps that will keep children and teens safe online.

Another great tool for children, parents, guardians, educators and law enforcement is TheNetSmartz Workshop.  This program is an interactive and educational program of the (NCMEC) specifically designed for children ages 5-17.  With the help of videos, games, activity cards, and presentations, children can have fun and also educate themselves to stay safe online.

Sometimes parents are not too familiar with the Internet.  What happens in that situation?  How can they still protect their children?

Peter Johnson recommends that parents who are not familiar with the Internet speak to someone who can point them in the right direction.  He says, “Netsmartz 411offers some basic information that can help parents from setting an email account to opening an account in Facebook and other social networking sites.”

Online Safety Tips.

  

·      Make sure your child doesn’t spend all of their time on the computer.

·      Keep the computer in a family room, kitchen or living room, not in your child’s bedroom.

·      Learn enough about computers so you can enjoy them together with your kids.

·      Teach them never to meet an online friend offline unless you are with them.

·      Watch your children when they’re online and see where they go.

·      Make sure that your children feel comfortable coming to you with questions and don’t over react if things go wrong.

·      Keep kids out chartrooms or IRC unless they are monitored.

·      Encourage discussions between you and your child about what they enjoy online.

·      Discuss these rules, get your children to agree to adhere to them, and post them near the computer as a reminder.

·      Teach them what information they can share with others online and what they can’t (like telephone numbers, address, their full name and school).

·      Get to know their “online friends” just as you get to know all of their other friends.

·      Warn them that people may not be what they seem to be and that people they chat with are not their friends, they are just people they chat with.

·      Avoid webcams if possible.

Source

Detective Joseph Sorrentino a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and a member of the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Task Force says, “the problem is most parents don’t know enough about computers, their kids set up their computers for them.”  “When it comes to social networking I tell parents, first off, they should set up your own account because you can’t really investigate, unless you’re a member.  I strongly urge that parents become the friend of their child.” Source

Detective Sorrentino and his staff give out presentations throughout Fairfax County Schools to educate children and teachers.  He also trains SRO’s (School Resource Officers) with the most important issues that they could be faced throughout the school year.  The curriculum includes courses on handling “sexting” cases, Internet Safety, cyber bullying and many more.

Generally, parents need to be informed and get all the training possible if they are not too familiar with the Internet.  There are certain tools that parents can use to protect their kids.  Filtering software, for example, is highly recommended.  Some of the search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN already have parental control options that authorize parents to filter information.  The only disadvantage about this type of filtering is that it works for certain sites, and it has very limited capabilities.

The best option would be to buy Monitoring software that allows monitoring a computer from the web.  NetNannyParental Control is perfect for informed and proactive parents who may or may not be computer or Internet savvy.  Another more advanced software is SpectorSoft, which allows parents to record everything from Facebook, websites visited, online searches and more.

Some other things that parents should learn are acronyms that tweens and teens use to communicate in chat rooms or text messages.  There are several online software free of charge that will decode these acronyms.

Although parental control and other software are available to protect kids online.  There is still so much to do about online safety.  Parents are the first ones to inform authorities if they suspect any online threats or mysterious activities that involves their kids.

 

Ultimately, the Internet is a fundamental tool for education, future career and lives. Parents need to understand that the biggest risk children face online is being denied access. Therefore, it's crucial that parents stay informed and educated on the latest trends of technology to keep up with their kids.    

The following video shows U.S. Ambassador to the EU William Kennard explaining how technology itself gives parents all the necessary tools to protect children.

Resources.

Enough is Enough. http://www.internetsafety101.org/acronyms.htm “Internet Safety 101”

National Center for Missing & Exploded Children. http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=169  “The Cyber Tip line”

Netsmartz411. http://www.netsmartz411.org/ “Ask an Expert”

Parry Aftab, Esq. http://www.wiredkids.org/wiredkids_org.html “Parenting Online”

Facebook- Mark Zuckerberg Wants Under Age Kids to Have an Account...

With more than 500 billion users Facebook continues to rise.  Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder has recently announced that he wants under age kids to be able to have their own account.  Zuckerberg decision was based solely on education.  He thinks that kids should start learning and interacting with peers from an early age.

Below, you will find some of the real time tools such as Twitter, RSS Feed, Google Alerts and Google Reader that were used to report this specific topic for real time journalism.

The following screenshot shows Google Alerts for the keywords "Under Age Kids on Facebook".  The second screenshot shows news sources and websites delivered via email.  Some of the news sources include The Deadbolt, Forbes and the Youth Worker website.

For Twitter Advanced Search, the keywords used were the same as for Google alerts "Under Age Kids on Facebook".  Results for RSS Feed from the following news sources and websites such as CNNMoney, Forbes and Computer World are shown.

Google Reader Public Page

Cyber Bullying- A Serious Problem on the Rise...

Many parents are not aware of the negative impact that cyber bullying can cause to a child. Unfortunately, research shows that cyber bullying is becoming a huge epidemic in cyber space among children.
 
Girls are twice as likely as boys to be cyber bullies as well as be targeted by cyber bullies.  Normally, boys are the most likely children to bully others but this is not true with cyber bullying.  Girls tend to use emotional methods, which can be perfectly carried out over the computer.  Cyber bullying can be anonymous and many children who are the victims of cyber bullying never know who was bullying them.

According to the Cyber bullying Research Center, there has been an increase in the number of children who are thinking about attempting suicide or attempted suicide in the past year.

The following graph is based on data taken from 2,000 randomly middle school children from the most populated US districts.

20% Reported seriously thinking about attempting suicide. (19.7% females, 20.9% males).  19% reported attempting suicide (17.9% females, 20.2% males).

Many people consider bullying to be a normal part of growing up. Unfortunately, today's form of bullying has become quite different by making kids vulnerable 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

These examples about cyber bullying and technology were taken from 4,441 random children and teenagers between the ages of 10 and 18 from 37 schools districts in the southern U.S.


Nearly 33 percent of the males and more than 36 percent of the females reported to be victims of cyber bullying, with chat rooms being the most common online location. (Males accounted for 23.8 percent of this response, and females accounted for 24.2 percent.)


After all, children are often not aware of the damage and the ramification can occur as a consequence of cyber bullying, and will continue if adults do not step in to stop them. Even if children know the damage they can cause, chances are they will not stop until adults take action.

Should Cyberbullying Be a Criminal Offense?

Bullying has long been a problem in school but was usually confined to the schoolyard or hallway.  Technology makes bullying even easier than it was before with email, chat rooms, blogs, camera phones, text messaging and social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace.   

There was a time when all bullying happened in person but now with the Internet, children can bully each other through all these popular methods of communication even anonymously.

Cyber bullies can humiliate, threaten, and belittle their victims without their identity being known, or they can have an audience of thousands. 

Many children report being bullied via the Internet or cell phones, and the effects can be devastating.  They also report they spread rumors and say other mean things online where many different people can see it. 

Cyber Bullying Statistics

• 42% of kids have been bullied while online. 1 in 4 have had it happen more than once.
• 35% of kids have been threatened online. Nearly 1 in 5 have had it happen more than once.
• 21% of kids have received mean or threatening e-mail or other messages.
• 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than 4 out of 10 say it has happened more than once.
• 53% of kids admit having said something mean or hurtful to another person online. More than 1 in 3 have done it more than once.
• 58% have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online.

Source

The consequences of cyber-bullying are as damaging and serious as bullying in face-to-face interactions. Reports from the Cyber-bullying Research Center show that it can result in lower self-esteem, a greater probability of suicidal and feelings of anger, frustration and fear. 

Many states such as, New Jersey, Delaware, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, Idaho, and California have approved laws requiring schools to develop policies intended to stop cyber bullying as well as to have the right to suspend or expel cyber bullies.  

Some experts agree that using the law to address this problem will not get a final solution.  First the law needs to be observed whether it would be effective in this new hybrid online- offline environment to discourage this kind of behavior.  Next, making sure that law enforcement officials have the support, they need to get the job done.

According to Robert Trestan, civil rights counsel for the Anti-Defamation League.  says that  “No one, regardless of age, is exempt from the current criminal laws. Passing new laws to criminalize bullying will only lead to kids leaving school with a record instead of a diploma. It is not the solution.”

Schools must develop programs to teach children about cyber-bullying and its impact mechanism for prevention and response need to be established, and everyone should be educated.  All needs to be in place before an incident happens.

In conclusion, the federal law will not prevent tragedies from happening. It's a commitment to teaching and mentoring, to being supportive and to be aware of the problem.

So, What do you think?  Should Cyberbullying be punished? Does society needs to take better preventative measurements to avoid further consequences?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this important issue.  Please leave your comments below.