Parents Need To Teach Children About Dangers Online: Predators, Privacy and Social Sabotage

by Mary C. Long

Are you teaching your child about the dangers online? Beyond predators, there is also privacy and social sabotage to worry about.

And if you haven't talked to your child about these concerns, they're likely to post statuses, information and pictures online that not only compromise their safety, but also their privacy - and it only gets worse from there.

Do you know what your child is doing online right now? If you answered yes, you're lying to yourself.

Unless you've installed spyware and can see exactly what your child is doing, odds are your little dear is doing something he or she would not want you to know, like the following:

• Watching an inappropriate Youtube video. Even if you've blocked access, they can view videos their friends share - and they share doozies. Fear the unknown on this one. What can you do about it though? Not much honestly, beyond letting them know that you know what's out there and that viewing (and especially commenting) on inappropriate videos is punishable by losing online access.
• Talking to a stranger. This happens more often than you think - and the instances range in severity. He could be interacting through seemingly (and quite possibly) innocent Facebook page posts or he could be frequenting sites like Chat Roulette and many, many others where participants talk to random strangers via video chat.
• Posting things they shouldn't. This also happens a lot. Maybe your child is tweeting location info, like sharing she's at the movies with friends (Twitter is public and a stalker's dream platform). Or she could be posting inappropriate pictures/videos of herself and her friends, not realizing the full impact of her actions: what one posts on the Internet stays there forever.
• Bullying other people. Kids don't only bully other kids online, they bully adults too - and they can be relentless. Harmless fun? Not quite - and victims are starting to fight back, going to court to force Internet providers to reveal bullies' identities. So unless you want to teach your child how to bully effectively and mask his ISP, it's time to have a serious discussion about consequences (and about not being a jerk).

Here are some steps you should take:

• Set up a Google alert for your child's name and any screen names you are aware of (this can alert you if something goes haywire online and your child is too embarrassed to tell you right away).
• Familiarize yourself with the sites and pages your child frequents. Online interactions don't only happen via desktop, there are smartphone-specific apps, texts and even video game interactions (if they play against others) for you to worry about as well.
• Talk to your child about interacting online and the dangers detailed above, stressing that protecting her privacy and social reputation online is very important, and leaving the door open for her to come to you with any online concerns or questions. You may even want to offer a "get out of jail free" pass when those inevitable online screw-ups occur - meaning, as long as she alerts you to her faux pas immediately, she will not be punished.

That should give you enough to start with. Feel free to reach out for platform-specific tips! And let us know how it goes!
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