Kids and teenagers are in danger of many things online including predators. People pose as teenagers in chat rooms and various forms of social media and because you can't always see who is on the other end of the conversation, it is easy for people to pretend to be someone they're not. How can we protect teens and children from the people who use deceit with the intent to harm?
Well, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri believes that kids should not have access to the internet without supervision. Setting boundaries for what kids can do online, in his opinion, is the only way to protect them. His advice to parents and grandparents is to use parental controls to block inappropriate content, monitor every activity that a child is doing online such as who they're communicating with and what content they're looking at, and he also says it's important to be able to see your kids while they're on the internet at all times so it's easier for you to check up on them.
This seems like sound advice and I could imagine that monitoring a child's online activity would lower the chances of them being targeted by an online predator but what about other kinds of media?
In February of this year, a fourteen year old boy named Breck was stabbed to death by Lewis Daynes, a guy he played games with online. The incident occurred when the two decided to meet in person for the first time. This article doesn't say much about why Daynes killed Breck but it shines a light on the advice that Sheriff Gualtieri gave.
Breck's mother used those same tactics to protect her son after she became suspicious of the person he was communicating with on the game. She limited her son's usage of electronics and made use of parental controls. If she had set boundaries for her son, why wasn't it enough to keep him safe?
I think it's important to have tactics to keep kids safe when they are online but since parents can't keep them off the internet completely, there should be a better way to crack down on people with bad intentions not just online but in other communication mediums as well.
Parents should also teach their kids how to be more aware of people instead of just telling them not to talk to strangers. If they know more about what could happen, I think that they will begin to understand the importance of being safe online or anywhere where they can come into contact with strangers.
I think that if kids understand the consequences of talking to people they don't know, regardless of how friendly they seem, they'll hesitate to go out and meet with their online 'friend' in person or share information with them that would lead the predator to their house or to wherever they go to school.
Kids who are old enough to use the internet are old enough to be told the realities of not using it wisely. It's better to be completely honest with your kids about the possible dangers they could face online than to simply just set boundaries and set up parental controls.
http://clearwatergazette.com/cg/opinion/internet-predators-how-to-protect-your-children-from-online-dangers-20141113/
http://abcnews.go.com/International/mom-sons-murder-online-gaming-partner/story?id=27309290
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