Kidnappers’ Perfect Hunting Ground: Social Media
The way our kids socialize nowaday is changing; rather than doing outdoor activities with friends, they prefer spending time on the internet to interact with people through chat rooms, online games and social media.
Social media just came out the last decade, for us it’s a whole new world, a field we are not so familiar with, but for our kids, they grew up with it! And since it is how they connect with other people, there’s no way we can just block them from using social media. What we should do is to learn how online predators operate on social media and teach our kids about the potential risks out there.
Kids are showing personal details on social media
The default settings in many social media sites are “public”, which means kids are showing details about themselves to the world, such as pictures, address, phone number, name of their school, their interests, what they are doing, and even where they are. In the past, it was very difficult to collect any personal information, but social media has made it effortless now. Kidnappers can simply act like someone at the similar age and shares the same interest to let down their guard and start a conversation.
Furthermore, recent research has shown that some teenagers don’t see chatting with someone older as a potential threat, so kidnappers don’t even have to bother pretending to be someone else!
How online predators operate
Studies have shown that teenagers are more than happy to “friend” or “follow” whom they have never met in real life on social media sites, and are willing to talk to those people as well. We’ve all taught kids stranger danger — not to talk to strangers when they approach you — but kids mostly do not consider talking to a stranger in person and online the same thing. In the beginning, they might not plan on meeting this stranger in person; however, as time goes by they can easily be groomed and fell into kidnapper’s trap.
According to the Enough is Enough Organization, 16% of teenagers considered meeting someone they had only talked to online, whilst 8% had actually done so. Of those who did meet strangers face-to-face, 75% did so on more than one occasion.
What should we do to keep kids safe on social media
Even though the incidences of being kidnapped are rare, the incidences of sexual exploitation, grooming and cyberbullying are worryingly high. We have to make sure kids are aware of the threat and know the borderline of what to and what not to share with strangers. Go through privacy settings with your kids, you might want to turn every “public” setting off, but don’t do that, it will only lead to alienation from your kids and expose them to higher danger. Monitoring your child’s online activity is also a way to ensure their safety and monitoring software such as KidGuard can help.
Nonetheless, the most efficient way to keep kids safe online is communication. Kids will be completely safe on social media only when they feel comfortable to talk to you about their online activities!
