While child abuse, cyberbullying and sexual predatory behaviour have long been associated with the open internet, the means to target children and young people have become more intelligent and increasingly sophisticated.
According to a recent report from Parents Against Child Exploitation, mobile phones and other smart devices are now the tools of choice for paedophiles to stalk and interact with children. On the legislative front, tremendous strides have been made recently as Google, the world’s largest media organisation, announced measures to prevent depraved images and videos from appearing in more than 100,000 search terms. “We’ve listened, and in the past three months put more than 200 people to work developing new, state-of-the-art technology to tackle the problem,” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, in a media statement to The Guardian, adding that the company has fine-tuned Google search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in their results. Set to apply to 150 other languages within the next six months, these measures will take on a global approach to an increasing menace that has no territorial boundaries.
The study also found that a majority of parents did not have the information needed to effectively fight child exploitation on the web and ultimately on their smartphones, blaming a generational technological gap. While you don’t have to be an expert, supervision and guidance are key. You can start with these steps:
• Download the available protection software and apps, including a new smartphone app, called Operation Predator — that enables users to provide online tips to the authorities, receive alerts about wanted predators, and share information via social media platforms. This app is available through the Apple App Store.
• Contact your phone carrier to find tools available to control adult content and services.
• Install parental locks as found on smartphones. In the case of an iPhone, linking home and remote devices through iCloud allows parents to monitor their child’s messages, internet habits and photo and video sharing.
• Ensure that your child’s phone is kept in a safe place and has a security password to prevent others from accessing or finding personal information.
• Counsel your children not to respond if contacted by someone they do not know, especially if asked to do something that doesn’t feel right. Save the message and the number, username or email address of the sender so that you can take action.
Given the ever-evolving face of technology, ensuring that the lines of communication are clear between parent and child, and genuine listening without judging makes all the difference. An open environment where a child feels safe to speak about what’s on their mind, combined with stringent supervision and up-to-date knowledge will lead to the judicious use of new technologies when it comes to keeping your child safe.
