Cyber Security Awareness for Parents
* Average child gets a cellphone around 10 years of age
* 20% have received content from someone else that makes them uncomfortable
* 55% of children have shared something sensitive (image, info., etc.) online with a stranger
* 15% have sent a sexual image to someone they only know online and have never met in person
* 70% have sent a sexual image to boyfriend/girlfriend
* 39% had a sexual image shared with unintended recipients
* 12-17 years of age is the biggest consumer of internet pornography
* 43% of children would change their behavior if they knew parent was monitoring
www.guardchild.com
Online Sexual Predators will:
* Prey on teen’s desire for romance, adventure, and sexual information
* Develop trust and secrecy: manipulate child by listening to and sympathizing with child’s problems and insecurities
* Affirm feelings and choices of child
* Exploit natural sexual curiosities of child
* Ease inhibitions by gradually introducing sex into conversations or exposing them to pornography
* Flatter and compliment the child excessively, sends gifts, and invests time, money, and energy to groom child
* Develop an online relationship that is romantic, controlling, and upon which the child becomes dependent
* Drive a wedge between the child and his or her parents and friends
* Make promises of an exciting, stress-free life, tailored to the youth’s desire
* Make threats, and often will use child pornography featuring their victims to blackmail them into silence
Warning signs:
* Becomes secretive about online activities
* Becomes obsessive about being online
* Gets angry when he or she can’t get online
* Receives phone calls from people you do not know or makes calls to numbers that you do not recognize
* Receives gifts, mail, or packages from someone you do not know
* Withdraws from family and friends
* Changes screens or turns off computer when an adult enters a room
* Begins downloading pornography online
https://internetsafety101.org/
What to do if your child discloses sexual abuse:
* Believe!
* Report immediately
* Do not try and confront the suspect online
* 20% children abused before the age of 8
* 90% of child sexual abuse victims know their abuser
* Only 4-8% of child sex abuse reports are fabricated
Parental Control Tools/Spyware
Bark (text messages, email, social media activity). Auto parental alerts. Unlimited devices.
Qustodio (YouTube, browser history, text message content, blocks porn, location tracking, and panic button)
Webwatcher (track and log texts, deleted texts, photos, browser history, location tracking, parental notifications and alerts for risky behavior)
Consider a phone-use contract between you and your child:
Samples can be found
here
Resources:
Colorado Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
Podcast
Bark Blog
Common Sense Media
Guard Child
How to find vault phone apps
Internet Safety 101