Important Again: Internet Safety

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Video: Important Again: Internet Safety

Video: Important Again: Internet Safety
Video: Being Safe on the Internet 2024, March
Important Again: Internet Safety
Important Again: Internet Safety
Anonim

In the world of modern technology, every child has access to the Internet from an early age

Today, it is no longer surprising that two-year-olds find their favorite cartoons on YouTube without any problems, and first-graders get access to all the necessary information using Google. This development of information technology, of course, has many advantages.

However, the availability of information also has a downside to the coin. In order to protect your child from unnecessary or unsafe information, you must remember the basic rules.

Sorting information

The information should be sorted according to the age of the child. Children under the age of twelve need to restrict access to certain resources. For this, most modern providers offer parental controls. Alas, for completely harmless queries, the search engine often gives out information harmful to the child's psyche.

For example - quite often pop-ups of a pornographic nature. The child will not understand the context of this window, but the picture itself will be imprinted in the subconscious and may emerge a little later, when there is more awareness in this topic. Do not panic, close your child's eyes or drive him away from the computer if he comes across such images. Try to react completely calmly, without attaching special importance and without emotionally or intonationally focusing attention on this image.

It is only natural for an older child to have questions about the content of certain sites and pages. Often, parents have a shock, a feeling of shame. A child's interest in sex, violence, and other socially “dangerous” topics often frightens parents. However, it is completely natural and normal. This is part of the interest in the world. The most normal response is to provide the minimum information the child needs. Provide short and clear wording that accurately answers the child's questions. In simple words, no details. Details are needed at an older age, starting from 10-12 years: then the child is capable of analyzing information.

Dialog

The next thing to remember is the basics of information security. It is very important to explain to a child, starting from 6-7 years old, that a person on the Internet and a person in reality are not the same thing. It is through children and adolescents that network criminals (traffickers, pedophiles, robbers) receive the information they need. The psyche of a child is still weaker than the psyche of a person on the other side of the Internet. But parents have the power to set boundaries and explain the consequences. The main thing is to be aware of the danger yourself and to prepare for this conversation.

So, what is worth knowing about Internet scammers who can squeeze out information through your child: they know the psychology of the child, speak slang, are familiar with youth trends and easily find a common language with children. Most often, these people create several accounts on social networks, indicating the age of the category of children and adolescents they are interested in. They indicate interests that are typical for a given age, and quickly rubbed into trust. Through indirect discussions, leading questions, they find out information about the financial situation of parents, about what kind of family, what kind of relationships in the family, what problems. The simplest scenario is to find out when no one is at home and rob an apartment. But there can be much more serious consequences - kidnapping, rape, kidnapping, sending abroad.

Age features of Internet security

In order to protect the child on the Internet, it is necessary to understand the age characteristics of behavior on the Internet and create rules for visiting the Internet in the family. For children under twelve years old, browsing Internet resources should be carried out under the supervision of parents. And parents should have access to logins and passwords, social networks and email. This is not a violation of personal space, it is a guarantee of security. To make this process smooth and conflict-free - create accounts and email addresses with your child, sit next to him, help him in the process. Store passwords in a safe place.

For older children, after the age of twelve, their personal space becomes more real, they also have the opportunity to speak and explain the dangers that may be hiding behind sites or people on the Internet. This conversation should not sound like suggestion or instruction. It is best if it takes place at the level of discussion and exchange of views. Ask the child if he knows of cases where a bad person lured information through the child about his family, or pretended not to be who he really is. Ask your child for their opinion on this person. Ask about what the hero of the story should and should not have done, how he could understand that a person is crossing the border of his personal space.

Note

In a discussion format, you may come across a child's false beliefs about what is good and what is bad, and then there is a temptation to “educate” him. You must refrain from this temptation, otherwise you run the risk of stumbling upon resistance and strengthening the opposite behavior programs. The best way is to tell a story about some other child who did this and how the bad person took advantage of it. Encourage your child to independently find the correct mechanisms of behavior, to assume the actions of a fraudster. This especially works with adolescents, who perceive most of the information coming from adults only half and often act the other way around.

The next thing I want to draw your attention to are communities and sites that pose a danger to the psyche or health of the child. We are talking, among other things, about the so-called Death Groups - Internet communities that stimulate the unstable psyche of children and adolescents to commit suicide. Alas, most of the children are involved in this. About half of them commit acts of self-harm, while others attempt suicide.

From practice

In my practice, there was a case when a teenage girl who escaped from such a community approached me on her own. I share this story with the permission of the girl herself and her mother. They are interested in that as many children and parents as possible are warned about this danger.

My patient was sick with a progressive, incurable disease that affects her mood. The child's depressed morale became an excellent breeding ground for instilling suicidal ideation. The girl shared her thoughts and mood in statuses on one of the social networks. In response to the sad reasoning, a comment came with a proposal to talk in “private”, to have a heart-to-heart talk.

A feature of such publics (Internet communities) is that they do not drag people with suicidal ideas, they support, inspire hope, express understanding and sympathy. Then they gradually bring the child to the conclusion that the problem is really huge and insoluble, and the only way out is to get out of life.

Supporting correspondence with an “understanding and sympathetic” interlocutor lasted almost a month. During this month the stage was being set in order to involve the child in the “game”. At one of the moments when my client was especially vulnerable in her depression, her interlocutor suggested that she be distracted by playing a game. At first, these were completely harmless tasks - to draw a whale on the arm, in a notebook and on a backpack. My client at that time was thirteen years old, and she believed that by painting her pain, she gets rid of it. However, after a few days, the tasks became more complicated. In particular, her “curator” asked to cut the inscription on her hand with a blade and post the image on the net as a confirmation of the completed assignment. To maintain the necessary emotional state, the curator sent my client music, or rather, a soundtrack, in which the sounds were in dissonance with each other.

I listened to several fragments of these songs and I can say that such music can really cause a clouded state of consciousness. The depressed mood was also supported by videos containing uncensored suicide episodes, that is, with all the details. The culmination of the game was the task, after which the game usually ends: the girl had to lie down in a warm bath and open her veins. Instructions on how to do this were attached. When the girl came to me, she could already tell this story more or less calmly. According to her, she woke up from pain when her hand was already thoroughly cut. Until that moment, she did not feel pain even while performing self-harming tasks.

In such publics, specialists work, not random people, and certainly not teenagers. These people know what to do, how to influence and what to say, in addition, they control the execution of tasks, take the child's home address and parents' names, and threaten him and his family. It is a great tool for manipulation. The story of my client ended well, her curator was arrested. The girl receives medical and psychological assistance.

One of the important conditions for a child's safety on the Internet is trust between him and his parents. If trust is formed and the child knows that he can turn to mom or dad, grandmother or grandfather with any question and problem, he will not look for primary information on the Internet. Remember, all prohibitions generate even more interest. Do not forbid your child to surf the Internet, just form the right relationship and establish rules of behavior. Talk to your child and give him the freedom he needs, welcoming his accomplishments and preventing possible danger. Be tough enough within your boundaries, but flexible and not hurtful. If this seems difficult for you, contact the specialists, they will help to establish communication with the child.

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