The Case for Reviewing Your Child’s Social Media
By Team HSH
This is not an easy conversation to have with parents, teens, and Americans in general, but it needs to happen. With the release of yet another Islamic State magazine a couple of weeks ago, terrorists continue to market their violent version of the world to our teens across the globe. Dabiq magazine is just one of dozens of terrorist group propaganda avenues aimed at sensationalizing their messaging, their violence, and their way of life.
This messaging, complete with horribly violent videos like these: http://www.zerocensorship.com/t/uncensored-isis-execution/211405-isis-execution-video-compilation-from-egypt#axzz47R4PkJyk
Viewing these videos and similar media has resulted in horrible stories like the below Danish 15 year old who stabbed her mother to death after becoming addicted to watching ISIS videos.
As described in the previously released article, The radicalization puzzle. How is terrorist extremism produced? this 15-year old girl becomes obsessed with ISIS published, graphic online videos. She then meets and allegedly falls for an unnamed Muslim man who likely completed her radicalization by building trust with her through meeting in person. She stabs her mother over 22 times after becoming increasingly violent at home and at school and has been convicted to 9 years in prison all enabled by unchecked, unmonitored, unfiltered access to violent extremist messaging, images, and videos that potentially connect our youth with supporters of these groups.
Our teens more than ever have access to social media on their own smartphones, but the good news is that according to a Pew Research survey at least 60% of parents are monitoring their kids social media:
But we need to get the number up from 60% percent! This takes a joint effort. Parents discussing the dangers of social media, the realities of terrorism, but also governments providing methods for parents and teens alike to report various types of terrorist and extremist online activity. Governments may already be making moves to do just that. Recently the UK and the European Police Office (EUROPOL) have partnered up for the Red Stop button program to report online terrorist and extremist material.
With extremists propaganda broadcasted on multiple mediums in dozens of languages, sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. just can’t close and block this material fast enough. So what can you do to protect your children from this material:
1. Talk to your kids about this violent material and your views on it.
2. Monitor your kids social media accounts and activity looking for evidence of one-on-one messages with other members in violent or extremist forums
3. Block violent material by setting up filters on your child’s smartphone. Restrict access to these sites during times when you can’t monitor your children like late at night.
4. Encourage your kids to report extremist activity to you, their school, and the social media sites they visit.
Together we can make a difference and protect your youth from this new norm. For more information on the radicalization process, social media, and terrorism please visit the following sites:
The Radicalization Puzzle Article
Team HSH
