Parents: Do you know what your child is doing on the internet?
Chances are that unless you sit with them all the time they’re online or are very familiar with computers, you don’t. It’s a tricky issue to balance their right to freedom and privacy with your responsibility to protect them from harm and illegal activity. But there are ways you can do it if the approach is right.
Whilst the internet and the digital revolution is great in so many ways, it is also a playground for predators and peddlers dealing in identity theft, pornography, fraud, scams, child exploitation and other criminal activity. Your child may also be downloading music, movies, software illegally leaving them and open to civil or criminal actions and using filesharing programmes that also share your tax returns and other private material without them knowing!
The key problem is that the internet covers the whole world and you don’t know the real identity of who you are interacting with and what is entering or leaving your computer. Online predators and criminals disguise themselves to deceive and gain trust. Harmful software that can infect your computer and leave it open to attack is disguised or hidden so that you don’t know you’ve got it until it’s too late and sometimes you never know that it is on your computer!
To minimise the risk to yourself, your family and all your contacts stored in the address book in your computer, action needs to be taken at two levels:
The computer and the user.
The Computer:
For the computer, ensure that you have a firewall and anti-virus software installed and up-to-date. This can help prevent the unseen software infecting your computer. Netsafe , the internet safety group is an award winning, independent non-profit organisation that provides Cybersafety education for all New Zealanders.
Of particular interest for parents is their guide to computer security found here.
And doing the Net basics .
You can check to see if your computer has any filesharing programmes installed that may leave you open to civil or criminal action or make your personal files available to anyone online and remove them by using Digital File Check. Download here.
The User:
Helping keep your children safe on-line requires communication and trust. It is unlikely that you will be with them all the time on the computer and whilst you can use security software to restrict access to sites, there will be occasions where your child will do an action that will lead them to objectionable material. If that happens they need to be aware of what to do and they need to be prepared by you for that.
For the younger child, there is the Hector Safety Button™, a small programme that empowers children to deal with unwanted content online. This easy-to-use child activated safety button can help protect our youngest and most vulnerable online.
Once downloaded, Hector can swim alongside children (in a corner of their computer screen) as they surf the Internet using Internet Explorer, or communicate with others using Outlook or Outlook Express. If a child is upset or worried about an image that comes up on the screen, they simply click on Hector. He immediately covers the screen with a beautiful underwater scene, and a reassuring message that the child has done the right thing, and now can go and get adult help.
The Hector Safety Button™ is a perfect way to quickly cover the screen in such situations as accidentally accessing pornography or opening chain letters with horrific photos. At the same time, Hector’s positive message encourages a child to tell an adult that they’ve encountered upsetting or inappropriate material. Any worry they may have about being blamed is eased, and the adult is given the opportunity to commend and support the child.
The Hector Safety Button™ is available free from microsoft.com/downloads.
A range of cybersafety resources, including free animated episodes, puzzles and colouring books are available from the Hector’s World ™ website.
For the older child, they should be made aware that you are aware of the dangers that can be online from predators to identity thieves, that downloading and filesharing copyrighted music files is illegal as is burning off CDs to sell or give to friends and that this harms the very artists they like.
For more information and advice visit Netsafe or Childnet International's "Young People, Music & The Internet - A guide for parents and teachers about digital music at home, at school and on the go."guide
