Educate the parent/teacher or educate the child about online safety?

Posted on April 2, 2008
Filed Under child safety |

Keeping children safe online is a challenge. But where will you focus your energy on? Do you educate the child or do you educate the parent and teacher. Well you could argue that educating the kid, parent and teacher is equally important. But how do you prioritize. Or let me shamelessly borrow from my corporate culture leanings - “which approach will give maximum return on investments”.

There are pluses and minuses withe educating children. Young kids (4-8) have far more absorption skills and will understand the nuances of online safety very quickly. But kids beyond this age, especially teenagers, may not be a really attentive audience. If any parents has had an experience of asking their teenage daughter - “May I know who your friends in Orkut are?” - will know exactly what I am talking about. Never-the-less it is still worth finding out (create an Orkut profile yourself)

My approach would be to educate the parents/teachers first. Why? Because,

1) Many of them suffer from an inferiority complex that they are technically weaker than their kids. They believe that they do not understand the internet as well as their children and are in danger of appearing uncool. This belief must be banished.
2) Parents and teachers must be shown the “Internet that their kids” are seeing. This means a quick education about Social Networking, Social Media, Blogs, Sexual Predators etc.
3) Parents must be told how to observe their kids on the net. NO !! I am not talking about Net Nanny or Cyber Patrol. Here I am talking about doing an intelligent google search about their kids, checking out the kids orkut profile, checking out who is visiting the kid’s blog etc.

With this knowledge the parents have the tools to move further. This will give them confidence to monitor their child’s behavior and step-in if they see a potential problem.

Coming to the communication aspect between parents and kids. This is a weak spot in many families and I am not qualified to advice on that. But, if the parent has the ability to monitor their child’s online activities, then they can step in as and when there is a “red danger sign” flashing.

Anup
www.whatsyourisq.com

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