Online safety in the holidays

School holidays can mean your children are on the computer, their mobile phone or gaming console even more than usual, chatting to friends, hanging out on Bebo, watching and posting video clips on YouTube, or playing games. These days a child with technology is most likely a child connected to the rest of the world.

While many parents are aware that the online environment can bring strangers into their children’s chat environments, it’s important to understand other online risks as well. Preliminary results from NetSafe research suggests that as many as 20-40% of young people experience cyberbullying. Additionally, malicious software is often found in free downloads of music, movies, games and screensavers which target young people. Restricted material like pornography and violence is freely available online, along with other material which parents might deem inappropriate, anti-social or dangerous.

It can be tempting to try to shut out all possibility of risk and either remove the technology or use filtering and monitoring programs to block unwanted sites and keep a check on what children are doing. Realistically though, all a child has to do is use a proxy server (like hidemyass.com) or go next door to a friend’s house, library or internet cafe to get around most technological restrictions.

So how can parents encourage children to take advantage of all the benefits global connectedness brings while minimizing and managing the possible problems which can surface especially when young people have more time than usual on their hands?

Tips for parents to keep their children safer online:

• Get involved in your child’s online life (NetSafe recommends that children under 8 have an adult with them)
• Check in with them about online and offline friends
• Find out how they and their friends help each other deal with online problems
• Ask them to show you what they like doing online (don’t be afraid if you don’t know how to use the technology as well as they do –they may enjoy being the ones to show you!)
• Try to keep calm if there are online issues (kids often stop talking to adults if they think parents will react badly or take away the technology)
• Find out about online risks (for example, learn how to stop cyberbullying/textbullying and harassment, spot online grooming, avoid malware) and discuss how your children are currently managing those risks.

Be sure to visit www.netsafe.org.nz and www.hectorsworld.com throughout the holiday season for up-to-date and interactive education about keeping young people safe online.