There can never be a safe time to give your kids freedom to use the internet, however they will find it elsewhere as it’s not difficult these days to have access to free internet. According to SAPS, there are kids being reported everyday for being victims of the internet.
According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) South Africa, based on a study they did on ‘SA kids online study’ , over 95% of children have access to the internet and are at risk of being exposed to violence, exploitation and abuse.
The study shows that the majority of kids in SA use the internet unsupervised and have been exposed to many things, for example, talking to strangers, sending videos and inappropriate pictures to strangers and being exposed to nudity at a very tender young age.
You need to protect your child from using the internet excessively and unsupervised, according to the Department of Social Development in the Western Cape, there has been a rising number of kids being trafficked where perpetrators lure them to meet offline whilst they are using fake profiles.
There are things that your child will resent you about for example monitoring their use on the internet or limiting their time.
South African Police Service (SAPS), advises:
- To research on what apps you can install on your child’s phone or laptop so that you can track what they are doing on the internet,
- Insist that all devices should not have passwords by trying to reason with them and making them understand about the dangers of internet predators.
- Encourage them to tell you if they are receiving threats or being cyberbullies.
Also see:Social media is causing more harm than ever before among teens
