The internet or the digital world is much more anonymous than real. Different people with different intentions can hide their identities or prevent them from being someone they are not. This sometimes can create a big problem for your kids. The tips in this article will Help Protect Your Child from Luring as they can easily be the prey of such online predators.
It’s no doubt, parents need to be concerned about online predators and the tips here will help them protect their Child from online Luring. Yeah, this is because kids can be easily influenced, due to their thinking capability. Now, read the details below about why You need these tips to teach your child how to stay safe online.
Why You Need to Protect Your Child from Online Luring
Online predators can target your innocent children. They may try to lure your child and teens into the sexual conversation or face time meetings. Moreover, such online predators may even send sexually explicit content to your kid or ask them to send their pictures.
As per the report,
- Children between the ages of 12 to 15 get easily manipulated by the people they meet online.
- More than 50% of the victim of online sexual exploitation are children between 12 to 15.
- About 89% of children receive messages from online predators through instant messaging or chat rooms.
Thus, keeping the child safe online in this digital world is becoming challenging day by day. Almost 58% of parents are concerned about their child’s online safety. Today’s generation of children at the age of 5 gets their hands on smartphones and tablets.
They are very active on social media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram to communicate with others earlier.
If you have children or teens in your home who are very much active online and if you have no idea what online luring is and as their parents what you can do to protect them from online predators, then here is the article for you that covers some best ideas to help your child from online luring.
What is Online Luring?
Online luring is the illegal act of tricking the child, asking them to send their pictures or videos, or forcing them to have face time with the intention of committing sexual offences.
It is the case where someone (especially adult or elder one) tries to communicate with younger ones through any online platform via text, voice message, or video calls to commit sexual offences to that younger one.
Signs of people luring your child may seem to be:
- They promise to buy expensive gifts, chocolates, or trips around the world.
- They try to convince your child to explore their sexuality using inappropriate sexual language and expose them to adult content.
- Also, they try to threaten the child by saying they can hurt them or their family if your child does not do the things they are asked to do for them.
- They may also try to befriend your child to come closer to them to remove the “dangerous stranger” things.
Ways to Help Your Child from Online Luring
1) Talk to Your Child About Online Predators
Online predators often target the child having low self-esteem or who is lonely. Many children struggle to understand the social media world. Unknowingly they might become prey to online predators. That’s why it becomes very important to make your child aware of online predators.
As responsible parents,
- Try to be around your child when they are online.
- Ask them whether there is anything that makes them feel uncomfortable online.
- Make them read the news or articles on how online predators lure children.
- Tell them online predators could be anyone: woman, man, or adults who pretend to be someone they are not.
2) Discuss Risky Behaviours (One of the Surest Ways to Help Protect Your Child from Online Luring)
A child might be curious about something and might discuss or ask about the topic with friends or people they meet online. Sometimes, they might become curious about topics such as drugs and sex and ask other people they meet online, which can be very dangerous for your child.
As parents, you need to
- Tell your child it’s okay to be curious about things.
- Also, tell your child that discussing such things with other people online is not good.
- Ask your child to tell the things immediately if someone says to keep our conversation a secret.
3) Tell Your Child not to Spell Out Everything
The Internet world is full of risks. It is said that almost 500,000 online predators are active every day. Many hackers are in search of the right time where they can target the little innocent kids and take all the important information such as ATM card numbers, credit card PINs, and other personal details.
As responsible parents,
- Explain to your child how dangerous it could be to discuss personal details with the people they meet online.
- Tell your child to share the things with you if they face personal issues rather than the person they meet online.
- Also, tell them never to share the ATM number, credit card PIN, location of the house, name, age, likes, dislikes, or anything with the people online.
4) Use Parental Control Software
As per the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA, it is illegal for children under 13 to sign up the websites that collect the user’s data. So, do not let your child use any social media if they are under 13.
But, if they do not obey you and use social media sites, then get your hands on some best parental control software available in the market. Such parental software allows you to monitor your kid’s online activity, search history, and even track their locations.
5) Warn Your Child About Online Flirting
If your child starts becoming active on social media too frequently, then it’s a red flag for you that your children are up to something bad. Also, if your child starts using phones right after coming home from school or whenever they have some free time to spend, then your child has become an internet addict.
So, as parents, you need to
- Talk to your child about online flirting.
- Tell them online flirting seems exciting at first, but it can be very dangerous as time passes.
- Help your child to determine what behaviour is acceptable online.
- Please help them to block messages and calls from some users online.
- Make sure that they tell you immediately when they feel uncomfortable talking to some online.
6) Be Clear About Offline Safety Too
Sometimes, children may fall into the trap of people they have met online having the wrong intention. Such online predators may lure your innocent kids and ask them to meet offline. Children are too innocent and not mature enough to determine what to do in such conditions. And most of the children end up agreeing to meet them.
So, you as parents need to be very conscious about your child’s activity whenever they go out to meet friends. Sometimes the friend they are talking about could be the stranger they met online. You need to
- Tell them why it is dangerous to meet strangers offline.
- Tell them never meet people without informing to you
- Also, tell your child how people could use their information to freeze or hack the bank account or ATM
7) Teach Your Child to Keep Their Location Private
Today’s app includes geotagging features, which give your current location whenever you are accessing them. Because of such a feature, someone will know about your child’s current location directly and start tracking their location, which can be very dangerous.
So as parents, teach them how they can keep their location hidden or private whenever they are using apps. However, some social media apps hide the location automatically, but not every available app in the market.
8) Keep Control of Your Child’s Digital Footprints
The internet contributes to being the digital footprint of someone who posts or shares pictures and videos online. The main risk is that once the post your children have shared is public, other people can use it in many different ways that you may not have expected, and also, you may lose control over it.
You should know your children about such issues and know that the post they share online is permanent. However, it can sometimes be deleted but not always before others have seen or saved it.
So, as parents, you need to
- Tell your children to stay in control of their digital footprints
- If they share something online, tell them to share only with trustworthy people.
- Tell them to use the privacy settings offered by every app and be selective of their choices.
9) Know Who are the Online Friends of Your Child
As adults, we know what kind of people we can get over the internet and mature enough to determine and handle such predators, but our children have no clue, which can sometimes be very threatening for them.
So, as parents, you need
- To know about the friends they often hang out or talk to frequent online
- Ensure you check and monitor their online post frequently
- Make sure to befriend on social media with your child’s friends
Conclusion
As adults, it becomes very important to educate yourself about online safety in this digital world to give proper advice and guidance to your children. Tell them how they remain safe even talking to unknown people online because it is more possible than not letting them talk or chat with people online in this digital era.
And regarding online safety and helping your child from online luring, you can use the tips mentioned above.
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