Putting predators at bay: five tips to keep teenagers safe online

A few key essential tips to safeguard children from the risks of the online world.

Internet use by children and teens has steadily grown in recent years. Since the pandemic, internet usage has expanded even more—for learning, socializing and for entertainment—due to lockdowns and school closures. Unfortunately, even in 2019, there were reports of malicious actors using these online platforms to communicate with young children. The online world has most definitely now become a breeding ground for child abuse. A large number of children have almost certainly already been approached. Child abuse is a multi-billion-dollar industry globally. For instance, during the ‘Blue Whale phenomenon’; hundreds of children around the world inflicted self-harm and rang alarm bells around the world around mental health and internet safety.

With ever increasing ease of access to dark corners of the internet and insatiable curiosity, how do we protect children who are highly vulnerable to fall into the trap of unscrupulous elements?

Here are some tips to help children safeguard children from the risks of the online world:

1. Aim for resilience: Similar to enterprise cybersecurity, parents should aim for resilience, not zero breaches. Cyber threat actors would continue to target children, with unpredictable and unpreventable approaches. From the multiple attacks, if any of them succeed, it is important to minimize damages. One way of minimizing damages is to role-play risk scenarios, so that children are prepared whenever any suspicious activity takes place.
2. Use what is available: Even if it is not 100% effective, monitoring/ blocking technologies could keep risks at bay. Keep a track of the websites that children visit, the device applications they install, and what photos are they use or upload online. Strike the balance between giving them their privacy and keeping them safe.
3. Be a good listener: Your best chance of stopping a really bad event is not by filtering every internet interaction they are having, but rather discerning something fishy when they are perhaps updating you about their day. Try to be their friend, not gatekeeper.
4. Sensitize them: Have open communication with children. If required, share the hard realities of the online world even if it runs the risk of exposing them to horrors you otherwise would like to keep them away from. The ultimate aim should be that the child registers the information and becomes aware.
5. Balance access and caution: There are high chances of children getting exposed in the online world. If not now, then at some stage. This can happen with or without your knowledge/ consent. Focus on preparing them for it. Without becoming the moral police in their eyes, in which case, children may not become comfortable in sharing information with you, and perhaps even end up doing the opposite of what you are telling them.