Keep Your Family Protected Online
by Drew Woolley
For many parents, the biggest challenge to protecting their children online is feeling like they can’t keep up with the pace of new technology. It isn’t easy to teach children how to navigate a childhood with social media and online gaming when they never had that experience.
“Really, since the iPhone put social media in our pocket in 2008, our children are finding their identities online,” says Michael Lemon, founder of the Cyber Safe Families Facebook group and a 20-year veteran of the Bowling Green, Kentucky, Police Department. “They’re being put in adult situations, and they’re not ready for that.”
Often, the solution for protecting children from these situations is as simple as only allowing them to download apps with appropriate age ratings or making sure their social media accounts are set to private. But even navigating these constantly changing technologies can leave many parents feeling overwhelmed.
“They didn’t grow up with it. So, it’s not like when I was growing up and my parents knew how to drive, so they taught me how to drive,” Michael says. “Parents can’t teach kids how to be online and around social media and gaming because they didn’t grow up with that. So, there’s a disconnect, and they feel like their children are so far ahead of them.”
Fortunately, you don’t have to be an expert to protect your children. Here is Michael’s advice for keeping children safe online.
Social Media
1 of the most important aspects of social media for parents to remember is that while children are allowed on the platforms, they are not necessarily designed with children in mind. And like any business, social media has its own priorities. “You have to understand that their primary concern is not your child’s safety,” Michael says. “Their primary concern is to make money, and their secondary concern is keeping your kid safe enough that there aren’t lawsuits or the federal government climbing down their neck.”
With that in mind, Michael urges parents to familiarize themselves with the parental control tools available on each platform. Many social media apps allow parents to limit the time children can spend on the app, who they can communicate with and whether commenting is allowed on their posts.
“It starts with a mindset. You don’t need to let your child go any farther than you’re comfortable with,” Michael says. “TikTok and Snapchat are not great about parental controls, so know that going in before you say, ‘Yeah, you can have it.’”
Gaming
While games often have better parental control settings, many also offer the added concern of voice chat.
“Online predators know if they’re sending messages back and forth that can be found, and the social media site could be alerted to it,” Michael says. “But when it’s just voice, they know that’s not recorded. That can never be used against them.”
It’s also possible for adult content to find its way into games such as Minecraft and Roblox, where players have broad freedom to create anything they want inside the game. In these situations, managing a child’s connectivity level in the game is important. Most gaming devices can be set to play online with other players, play online but not connect with other players or be completely offline.
Michael’s solution to this problem for his own family is to pay for a private Minecraft server, where his children can invite friends and explore the game away from public online spaces.
“They can still be on Minecraft, but they’re not accessible to other people,” he says. “You have to have that plan to say, ‘This is as far as I want them to go. They’re not ready to be on Minecraft with everyone else.’”
Identity Theft
We often think of identity theft as a digital threat for adults. But because they’re less likely to notice credit cards being opened or loans being taken out in their names, children can be prime targets for identity theft.
Often, the information thieves need can be found right on social media channels. A birthday photo can provide their name and birth date, while back-to-school posts might share their school, class or even their bus number.
That doesn’t mean parents shouldn’t celebrate big moments in their child’s life. But Michael recommends only making these posts visible to friends on parent’s and a child’s social media.
“The No. 1 thing is to make your child’s account private,” he says. “Because so many of these predators I’ve talked to, when they’re scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, whatever, they’ve told me the same thing: If the kid’s account is private, they just keep on scrolling. And if that happens, then your child is not approached.”
Artificial Intelligence
As new artificial intelligence technology continues to emerge, adults aren’t the only ones confronted by it. Snapchat has already launched its My AI chatbot that can field whatever questions its users might ask it.
“Think about who has the most influence over your children,” Michael says. “It’s the people they spend the most time with. If an AI is who they spend the most time with, then you really have to be concerned with who holds the keys to that. Cause the AI is just giving you answers based on the algorithm.”
Michael expects other social media channels to follow suit with their own AI companions soon. With controls and standards for this use of AI still up in the air, as with so many applications of the technology, his recommendation for now is to hold off on introducing children to their new AI best friend.
Most importantly, Michael says the good news is that parents don’t need to be techies to keep their children safe. They just need to apply some of the same rules they would turn to in more traditional parenting situations.
“You’re not going to drop your kid off at a mall you know nothing about. But that’s kind of what we do when we let them have an app where they interact with other people,” Michael says. “If you give your kid TikTok, understand the benefits and the downsides. You need to decide if you are ready for it and your children are ready for it.”