Youth, internet and cyberbullying
Kids and the Internet: better safe than sorry!
picture by FunnyBizz on flickr
These days, the internet is an indispensable tool, in particular for children and teens. It’s essential that you inform them of the potential dangers they might encounter on the Net. Here are a few tips to better protect them.
• Be aware of your children’s Internet activities. It’s important that you know which sites they visit. To ensure this, make sure you have a working knowledge of computers. Take a class if necessary.
• Install parental control filters on all computers in your home in order to limit access to inappropriate sites.
• Keep the computer in a common area of your home. This will allow you to supervise your child’s Internet activities.
• When using chat rooms or community networking sites such as MSN, Facebook or MySpace, it’s important to make sure your child never gives out personal information such as their birthday, phone number, address, full name or even the name of their school.
• Teach your child to be suspicious of people they don’t personally know. Tell them it’s always better to chat with friends they already know. Teach them that they should never get together with a person they’ve met online and to inform you should someone want to meet with them.
What is cyberbullying?
Today it’s becoming easier and easier to gain access to the internet and it has taken an important part of our daily life. It provides entertainment, information and even education. For all its benefits, internet might unfortunately also provide some unpleasantness. Cyberbullying is one of them.
Cyberbullying is a way chosen by some people to hurt someone using today’s technology to achieve their goals: use online personal pictures or embarrassing ones, send an e-mail or text message containing hateful comments or threats, steal someone’s password, spread false rumours and/or force someone to do questionable things in front of a webcam.
Useful links:
Canada’s national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children.
Raise awareness amongst parents that there are safety issues when their children go online and that they need to get involved. Provide practical information and tools that will equip parents to effectively manage internet use in the home and to teach their kids to be Web savvy.
They are committed to providing a safe and positive experience for families who use the Internet. Their goal is to become a national leader in promoting Internet safety for youth, in partnership with local law enforcement and community groups. Besides sharing their own information and resources, they encourage other agencies to join us in promoting safe Internet habits to our communities.
picture by > ange < on flickr
Action surveillance Verdun is a member of Tandem, the urban security program of the City of Montreal