Parents urged to be wary of online risks to children

Precautions advised as return to school will see an upsurge in use of mobiles and computers by children

As hundreds of thousands of children prepare for a new school year, parents are being advised to take precautions to ensure their loved ones are not exploited on the internet.

A return to their school friends will see an upsurge in children’s use of mobile devices and computers both as a source of information for their classes and as a means of communicating and sharing with their friends.

“Sharing photos, videos, status updates, messages and other types of information are part of daily life for children and teenagers, and when they return to school their smartphone usage is only bound to increase,” said Urban Schrott of internet security firm ESET Ireland.

“As such, parents need to be more attentive to ensure appropriate use of the internet by their children, while teachers need to teach their pupils about healthy use of the technology.”

ESET outlines five challenges which the evolving technology poses for children and young people.

• Challenge 1: The internet is a vast source of information, much of which could contain offensive or even dangerous content. The first challenge for parents and teachers is to teach children how to browse safely and distinguish what is really useful and helpful.
• Challenge 2: Malicious code, phishing scams, and malicious websites are out there in vast numbers on the internet. There is a need to understand the potential economic cost and the cost in terms of your personal information that these threats can bring about.
• Challenge 3: Grooming — a process whereby an adult attempts to persuade a child to engage in sexual activities, by developing an emotional connection with the child and a sense of trust — is a risk that tends to increase in likelihood with intense use of the internet.
• Challenge 4: It is essential to educate children about ensuring privacy while online. Practices like sending messages or photos with sexual content are increasingly common and can lead to various risky situations.
• Challenge 5: Lastly, there is a real need to teach kids about using social networks responsibly, as these tend to be the platforms on which cyberbullying and harassment take place. As such, it’s important for parents and educators to pay attention to children’s behaviour to detect any possible instances of this and intervene in time.

“The first step for parents and teachers, keeping in mind the speed with which technology develops, is to equip themselves with the knowledge they need in order to educate kids appropriately,” said Mr Schrott.

“The most important point is to create a space in which to talk about threats and habits online.

“To do this, parents need to understand the threats and explain to their children in what ways they could be in danger.

“Furthermore, teachers must incentivise responsible use of technology by maintaining standards of behaviour from the real world.”

He said it needs to be remembered that we are responsible for what we upload to the internet and that the moment we post a photo or video, we lose control of the material and have no way of knowing how it might be used.

“We have to be careful with the types of information we post online. Details like our home address and telephone numbers should not be shared on social networks,” he said.

“The internet makes it easier for people to be anonymous, so we can’t know with absolute certainty who is on the other side of the social network, unless it’s someone we know in real life.

“For these reasons, we have to be very careful with messages from people we don’t know who try to contact us via social networks.”