When considering mobile and internet child safety as parents, it may cause you to reminisce. "Well, back in my day this was never a concern."
Don't feel old, we're all working through it. Technology has changed and will continue to. Due to this, considering a child's safety hasn't changed - instead, there's now more to be cautious of.
When you were a child what did your parents have to look out for? Razor blades in apples during trick-or-treating at Halloween. You needed to wear your helmet on your bike. They needed to know at least the first name of the friend you were hanging out with for the afternoon. That there was a "buddy system" set up for when you were roaming around the neighborhood. You were typically inside before the street lights came on.
Activities that may have been acceptable for you to take part of, like going to the local pool with friends without your mom, are simply not considered safe anymore for children. Technology has added more safety concerns in addition to our culture changing.
Knowing how to handle who is interacting with your child online is something that is much harder to control than controlling who they hang out with "IRL" (in real life). According to Scholastic.com's article Keeping Kids Safe Online:
One out of every five kids gets sexual solicitations online. Strangers, predators, and cyber-bullies all target children, and their work is simplified when screen names reveal age, gender, or hometown. If posts aren't marked as private, personal information can be displayed to an unrestricted audience of readers.
Texting, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (etc.) are all platforms that envoke new concerns for how your children interact with the world. You may know exactly how to keep your children safe with the issues you came across when you were a child. However, with new technological advances, being educated and finding assistance in keeping your child safe is what is necessary for parents.
Allow us to help you in the process of protecting your children from these new digital concerns. Get started with the parental intelligence uKnowKids service to become aware of what your kids are up to online. uKnowKids might be just what you need to prevent your kids from having to deal with a detrimental online situation.
