https://www.webpurify.com/blog/internet-safety-for-kids/
Why internet safety for kids must be taken seriously by online platforms
Dr. Adam Pletter is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of children, adolescents, and young adults from his office in Bethesda, Maryland. He also founded iParent101, a program aimed at helping parents and children safely navigate the digital world. Dr. Pletter spoke with us, explaining why internet safety for kids needs to be taken seriously.
What does internet safety for children look like?
It’s a clear compromise. The internet is essential to our children’s lives and enhances them in many ways, and it comes with a lot of potential dangers. The simplest, most direct analogy I can think of is to cars, and learning to drive. At a certain age, our children have an opportunity to learn to operate very useful and potentially very dangerous machines called cars. Parents should approach online safety for their children in the same way as teaching them to drive. It’s all about providing an environment where the child can learn and practice under some level of supervision until they can demonstrate appropriate, trustworthy, and safe behavior.
Why are children most at risk from harm online?
When it comes to keeping children safe in the digital world, there are three aspects to consider. The first is that children have an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. You can think of that as the “braking system” of the brain, and it isn’t fully developed until around the age of 25. The second aspect is that children have an overactive emotional brain, and they’re less inhibited. They take risks, which aids in their trial-and-error learning about their world. So you’ve got weak braking and overactive emotions, and then the third thing is an unending, virtually unlimited amount of digital content on demand that is tailored to their interests.
Imagine the wackiest thing that a seven-year-old could think of. They can probably see a video about that thing with just a couple of clicks. Then imagine an older child looking up videos on nutrition, dieting, or health, maybe for legitimate educational and health reasons. They might very easily be led down a rabbit hole of disordered eating content, and all kinds of other concerning things presented as ‘helpful information’. A 12-year-old, with an underdeveloped regulatory system, is much more vulnerable to those kinds of influences than an adult might be.
Why parents should care about their child’s internet use
According to a study by UNICEF, “Globally, children and young people tend to become early users and prime innovators on the internet, and are often far ahead of their parents and other adults in terms of use, skills, and understanding.” Despite their technical skills, however, children are at high risk online from threats such as cyberbullying, predatory behavior, and inappropriate violent or sexual content. Often, they’re targeted in supposedly innocent social and “play” environments, including video gaming sites and social media. In cases where a child is more tech-savvy than the adults in their household, it can be hard for parents to identify when something has gone wrong.
Is your child at risk? Dr. Pletter suggests questions that parents should be asking:
- Is your child’s level of secrecy increasing? Do they seem like they’re hiding more from you, or lying to you?
- Are they more withdrawn?
- Are they more protective over their phone or tablet computer?
- Have they expressed to you that an online activity used to be fun, but now it’s not anymore?
- Do they appear to be sleep-deprived?
When it comes to proactive management of internet safety for one’s kids, Dr. Pletter’s advice to parents is to involve themselves in their child’s online activities, and turn access to online activities into opportunities for parent/child dialogue:
I always say that “parent” isn’t just a noun, it’s a verb too. Despite what they might say, our kids need monitoring, mentoring, and guidance. Just like any other complicated parenting situation, I recommend parents create an evolving, ‘level system’ where the child runs into certain boundaries or restrictions that slow or stop them, and help them regulate. And then, when the child wants to do something online, there can be a dialogue.
By creating a dialogue, where the child has to come to you in order to do what they want, you’re not stopping the child, you’re helping them slow down and think about what they’re going to do. And that helps the child practice regulating their thoughts and emotions.