More and more children are now actively using the Internet, but unfortunately, they rarely think about their privacy, which can lead to dramatic events. How to properly explain to a child what to be afraid of and how to behave correctly?
Children and online privacy
Privacy plays an important role in the use of media, as soon as you post any information, control over it is lost. Even not all adults understand this, and children do not pay attention at all and are often very naive.
Young users do not see that the Internet is a worldwide network and not just an interaction with a group of friends. Information spreads at lightning speed, so before you send something, you need to think carefully.
The biggest mistake is that children share life events more online than in real life.
“Once on the Internet, always on the Internet” – and educating a child about this trap is one of the first steps before getting to know the WWW.
Explain how wide the internet is, anyone, including strangers, can follow the account. Prohibit the sharing of information that cannot be shared outside of online mode.
Pay attention to the privacy agreement in social networks and sites visited by the child. Close your profile from strangers, set it up so that the social network cannot distribute downloadable content outside its borders.
For example, this is what TikTok does , if you do not set the appropriate option, the video may appear in Yandex Zen or on another platform without prior notice.
Regulate friendship
Discuss with your child who, in his opinion, can be friends, and who is not. Especially a lot of friends “knocking” on an account in such a social network as Facebook, completely unknown people will apply.
The goals are different, and it’s good if they are commercial or they are peers, but you can’t guarantee safe communication when they try to contact a young account owner.
Your child may pay for unnecessary courses, which are sometimes offered to our children in educational institutions, and payment may be money from your credit card.
Ask your child if in doubt whether to have a conversation or add a person as a friend, contact you.
Children’s Online Privacy – What Information Can You Share?
Conclude a clear “agreement” with the child that under no circumstances will he add strangers as friends and give them access to the page. It is forbidden to give your or other relatives the mobile phone number, home or work address of the parents.
The same applies to the posting of personal photos and videos, from which metadata can be used to obtain information about your location or the place where the shooting took place.
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer to automatically add location to your posts. Disable this option so that not everyone can see where you are.
Use only a pseudonym on the Internet, it will completely protect personal data, tell it only to friends and relatives, then others will not be able to find you using a search inside the system.
Teach your child to respect the privacy of others
The child needs to know that it is important to respect the privacy of others. You can not post funny or embarrassing situations captured in the photo without the consent of the participants / authors.
Do not distribute personal information of classmates. All this can lead to serious consequences, and posting a video with a condemned teacher on the Internet, no matter how strict, is punishable by law.
What should you do if your child has been harmed because of a privacy violation?
Discuss with your child what he should do if he finds something bad on the Internet about himself, his family or an acquaintance.
It is necessary to take a full-screen screenshot, save the page address and inform adults, then send a request to the site administration to remove the page with unwanted content.
If this is not done, the child may suffer from ridicule and reproaches from peers. You can read more about this in our article on cyberbullying .