Keeping Youth Safe Online
For Parents:
Parents are being encouraged to be actively involved with their children’s online activity.
The confine of your home does not, in and of itself, provide any level of security when it comes to your child and the internet. A child’s unfettered, unmonitored access to social media sites is tantamount to allowing your child left unsupervised at the local bus depot. Police therefore recommend the following safety tips:
• Have access to your children’s accounts. Their behavior will be modified if they believe you are watching. This is not spying, it is parenting;
• Install Parental Monitoring software on your computer devices to help block inappropriate content;
• Ensure your child’s profile on any social media site is set to “private”. This will ensure only people who are “allowed” to see their posted photographs;
• Do not allow your child to have friends or contacts that they do not know personally. Most child internet predators will pose as females or males in their peer group in order to build rapport;
• Disable “Geotagging” on any camera or device used by your child to post photographs. Information contained inGeotagged photographs can aid the internet predator in identifying your child’s home address and school;
• Discuss what photographs you will allow your child to post and monitor them. This not only pertains to the provocative nature of the photographs but clothing and backgrounds in the photograph that could identify your child’s home address and school;
• Do not allow your child to use social media applications, like KIK, that do not have privacy or parental controls. Social media applications like KIK lack the transparency, regulation and controls needed to keep your children and teenagers safe.
Here are some helpful resources to protect Youth online:
www.cybertip.ca - Report incidents of child internet exploitation, resource materials.
www.needhelpnow.ca - Family youth support for those involved in self/peer exploitation
www.protectchildren.ca The Centre for child protection. Links and resources.
www.thedoorthatsnotlocked.ca Online internet safety resource
www.connectsafely.org Parents guide to facebook
textED.ca Teaches youth safe texting practices
http://www.kidsintheknow.ca
Kids in the Know is the Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s national safety education program. The program engages students with interactive activities to help build skills that increase their personal safety and reduce their risk of victimization online and in the real world.
Parents are being encouraged to be actively involved with their children’s online activity.
The confine of your home does not, in and of itself, provide any level of security when it comes to your child and the internet. A child’s unfettered, unmonitored access to social media sites is tantamount to allowing your child left unsupervised at the local bus depot. Police therefore recommend the following safety tips:
• Have access to your children’s accounts. Their behavior will be modified if they believe you are watching. This is not spying, it is parenting;
• Install Parental Monitoring software on your computer devices to help block inappropriate content;
• Ensure your child’s profile on any social media site is set to “private”. This will ensure only people who are “allowed” to see their posted photographs;
• Do not allow your child to have friends or contacts that they do not know personally. Most child internet predators will pose as females or males in their peer group in order to build rapport;
• Disable “Geotagging” on any camera or device used by your child to post photographs. Information contained inGeotagged photographs can aid the internet predator in identifying your child’s home address and school;
• Discuss what photographs you will allow your child to post and monitor them. This not only pertains to the provocative nature of the photographs but clothing and backgrounds in the photograph that could identify your child’s home address and school;
• Do not allow your child to use social media applications, like KIK, that do not have privacy or parental controls. Social media applications like KIK lack the transparency, regulation and controls needed to keep your children and teenagers safe.
Here are some helpful resources to protect Youth online:
www.cybertip.ca - Report incidents of child internet exploitation, resource materials.
www.needhelpnow.ca - Family youth support for those involved in self/peer exploitation
www.protectchildren.ca The Centre for child protection. Links and resources.
www.thedoorthatsnotlocked.ca Online internet safety resource
www.connectsafely.org Parents guide to facebook
textED.ca Teaches youth safe texting practices
http://www.kidsintheknow.ca
Kids in the Know is the Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s national safety education program. The program engages students with interactive activities to help build skills that increase their personal safety and reduce their risk of victimization online and in the real world.
Resource: http://www.sd42.ca/rcmp-alert