When I was a child I was taught not to talk to strangers or take sweets from them, not to run with scissors, run across a road or look directly at the sun. They seemed to be the most dangerous things in life and to be honest life seemed a lot more simpler then.
Now children and teenagers have to deal with so much more thanks to technology! Staying safe nowadays has a whole new meaning. Parents may have thought they had it hard keeping their children safe from traffic and strangers but since the internet took off there are a host of other dangers! Youngsters now need to learn to stay safe online as well as the every day dangers that they face.
I do worry about my girls online and being honest Becky has had a few issues in her life by not following the simple rules I have set in the past. A good few years ago she started chatting to a stranger online and was telling "him" personal things like where she lived and things to do with school. The first Stu and I knew about it was when a teacher rang from school saying Becky might be talking to someone and it isn't who she thinks it is. It turns out one of her friends had set a fake account up just to make a food of Becky. She learned a valuable lesson that day, you can't trust everyone you meet online.
With information taken from ETAS the Modern rules of online safety are:
Never text or send other people pictures of your body parts.
I honestly don't think my girls would ever do this but it is a worry. I followed the story line on Coronation Street about a young girl taking her clothes off on a video chat only for the boy to record it then someone else share it online. I can honestly say I've never sent anyone pictures of my body parts, even Stu! You just don't know who could get hold of those images and what they could be used for.
Don't open links in an email if you aren't sure who sent it to you.
My girls have opened links they probably shouldn't have but nothing bad has came from them thankfully. I regularly show them my spam folder in my email account and have a good giggle about how much money I am being supposedly sent, the people who want to marry me and most recently all the free McDonalds I am entitled to. lol I wish!
Don't give out your address online.
My girls know not to share their address online. They have always been really clear about this and never have. Being a blogger I do give my address out a lot to be sent things to review but I do research the person and company sending whatever they're sending before they get my address. I have had people in the past who have pretended to be a PR who have tried to find out my address which I think is pretty low.
Check with mum and dad before making in-game purchases.
My girls know to do this. They do now. There was a time in the past where Ellie may have had a shopping spree or 2 online. They weren't in game purchases but online shopping with Smiggle which I did blog about. From then on she did learn her lesson!
Don't accept invites on Xbox from people you don't know.
Don't let anyone follow you on Instagram / Twitter / FB that you don't know.
Becky has private accounts on social media and she is so strict about who she lets follow her. She has friend requests from people in her class at college which she won't accept because as much as she knows them she doesn't class them as friends. She has a rule that if she doesn't speak to you on a daily basis you won't be making it on to her accounts. I think that is a little harsh. For example I have my cousin as a friend on Facebook which I speak to a few times a year but I wouldn't axe her from my friends list.
As a blogger it is hard to set a good example to my girls but I have explained that on my public social media accounts as much as I share my daily life there is still a lot that I don't share! It is hard but my girls do understand. It is like do as I say, not do as I do.
Don't enter your email address onto a website unless checking with parents first.
Grr! As much as I tell Ellie not to she will add an email address into every website she visits and 9 out of 10 times it's not her's it's my email. She thinks I would really benefit from seeing newsletters from the websites she likes.
Never type anything in a text message you wouldn't want your parents to read.
I think this is such an important rule and goes along with never type something to someone that you wouldn't say to their face.
Do you make sure your children follow these rules? What rules could you add?
This is so important. We have to teach our children how to use computers safely. My kids have been really good and I think I'm one of the lucky ones. I always remember when my eldest daughter was younger and her friend went on our computer and started arranging to meet a complete stranger. I soon put a stop to that and took her home in my car and let her Mum know not to let her go again. She was only 13 years old, that's younger than Star is now! She thought I was really mean and fell out with my daughter over it, but in the end I'm just glad I kept her safe. x
ReplyDeleteThis is really handy information that is clear and precise X
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