Parents need to monitor their children’s digital footprint to ensure that information posted online does not put them at risk or damage their reputation in future, according to a UK expert.
“The biggest concern is children’s digital footprint and parents need to get hold of that quickly. Children are naive... We’re there to guide and protect them from things that put them at risk. Posting things about their lives, their diaries, what upsets them, is probably best not done online,” said Annie Mullins, Vodafone’s global head of content standards.
Whenever people interact over the internet by, for example, posting photos and comments, they leave a trail or footprint. Children may not realise that a fun video uploaded today could come back to haunt them in future.
Research carried out by Microsoft in 2010 showed that 71 per cent of European teenagers post photos and videos of themselves and friends on social networking sites.
Some 43 per cent believe it is completely safe to post personal information online and almost half of recruiters across Europe look for information about potential candidates on such sites.
Since children are brought up having these technologies around they are not aware of the risks they pose. “Parents need to get online and see what their children are doing without necessarily keeping them under surveillance... Being too strict with a child could drive them underground where they are more at risk,” she said. Ms Mullins, a qualified social worker, was in Malta to give a lecture to university B.Ed students about the challenges parents and teachers face due to technology. She was invited to Malta as part of the Malta Communication Authority’s Be Smart Online campaign aimed at encouraging safer online presence ( http://besmartonline.org.mt ).
71 per cent of European teenagers post photos and videos of themselves and friends on social networking sites
Ms Mullins is the editor of the UK Digital Parenting magazine and helped launch the website vodafone.com/parents that offers information to help parents keep abreast of new technologies and understand how they can impact their children.
One of the main challenges parents face is lack of confidence as they feel children are ahead of them. “They need to be reassured that parenting remained the same. So as you talk to your child about leaving the house or going outside for the first time alone, you need to talk to your children about using different technologies...
“The same rules – such as don’t upset people, be kind, don’t get involved in things that have nothing to do with you – still apply,” she said.
She stressed that it was important for parents to educate their children and set rules and boundaries as early as possible.
Ms Mullins said that there was no hard and fast rule about the best age for a child to be given a mobile phone or allowed to open a Facebook account. Parents knew best when their child was ready to handle the technology, whether time restrictions ought to be set and what rules to impose.
“It is important for parents to recognise that, nowadays, these technologies are a great part of children’s social life and depriving them of them could mean cutting them off... The worst thing we can do is drive our children underground where we won’t know what they’re doing,” she said.
A recent study showed that half of 12-year-olds in Malta can freely access the internet from their bedroom and a quarter have cable TV in their sleeping area.
Commenting about this, Ms Mullins said that, again, it was up to the parent to set the rules depending on the child.
“Parents are becoming more tech savvy as they use mobile phones, shop on line and are on Facebook themselves,” she said adding that the next challenge was to address the level of awareness among grandparents that often spend lots of time with children.
Handling children’s internet reputation
• Stress that the internet is a public place, that anyone can see what they post and that it might be there forever.
• Encourage them to make the most of built-in privacy tools.
• They can set their social networking page or blog to “private”, for example.
• Explain that every time they go online they leave a trail. They’re not anonymous as they can be traced via their IP address.
• Sit down regularly with your child and type their name into a search engine so they can see what comes up about them.
• Encourage them to ask permission before publishing photos of their friends or family. Explain why it’s important that they’re honest when registering for websites.
• Discuss how they could be breaking the law if they make comments about someone online.
• Talk to them about the consequences of sharing intimate or naked images online or via their mobile.
Source: http://vodafone.com/parenting