I have had a change of plans for this weeks blog, as is the randomness that is social media I came across a lady who is more passionate about Cyber Safety and security than I am, especially when it comes to children. We immediately started playing twitter tennis about safety issues that concerned us in our Society, Parents views, and technology in general.
The one point that we both have noticed, is that people, and importantly parents tend to not want to know about the dangers or how to reduce them, the majority have a "It won't happen to my child, they are safe in our own home" attitude, or an, if I ignore it, it doesn't exist mentality.
In the middle of writing this, I just listened to a news report of three, 14 year old girls posting film on you tube of themselves offering to perform explicit sexual acts. Now all kids do silly things and that is part of being a teenager, but most silly things we did as teenagers are not able to be accessed or found out about many years later on.
Kids are not educated about the permanent nature of the Internet, most people do believe that if you delete something it is gone. When you delete something it usually only means it is not accessible from that particular location you are accessing it from. Deleting does not destroy!. The file, image etc still exists, it exists on a database, on a web page, on someones hard drive, in Cyber Space!. We need to make not only our children understand this, but our friends and our families as well.
If you wanted your children to play a musical instrument, what did you do?, if you wanted your children to excel at a sport what would you do? Sure most of these things are taught at school but only at a basic level. My guess is you paid a tutor or a coach to teach and train your children the skills that you were unable to teach them. Why won't people consider paying for, or for that matter, even going to free tutorials on Cyber Security. I actually notice peoples eyes glaze over as I start to tell them about issues they need to look out for.
We are the start of generations to come that must pass on the knowledge and wisdom that will protect out children and their children in the ever changing connected world that we live in. One place I would like you to start thinking about is "checking in" and the dangers it presents, people are able to form a profile of where you are, when you are there, who you are with or not with, and when you are NOT at your home, or NOT with your kids.
The lady I was lucky to meet is Leonie Smith, and she has a large online presence as the "The Cyber Safety Lady" http://thecybersafetylady.com.au/ Leonie is extremely dedicated and passionate about this subject, and as one would expect has every avenue of social media covered with her presence! including a You Tube channel which contains how to tutorials on setting up and controlling user accounts and controlling privacy settings.
Leonie also hosts free community Cyber Safety workshops and is available for a small fee to host private online tutorials for groups of parents. Definitely worth checking out Leonie's web page, even if you do not have children, because remember, the problem is!, if we don't have the knowledge! we are unable able to pass it on. You can also follow Leonie on twitter at _LeonieGSmith
Have a Happy and Safe Easter and be Safe Online
The one point that we both have noticed, is that people, and importantly parents tend to not want to know about the dangers or how to reduce them, the majority have a "It won't happen to my child, they are safe in our own home" attitude, or an, if I ignore it, it doesn't exist mentality.
In the middle of writing this, I just listened to a news report of three, 14 year old girls posting film on you tube of themselves offering to perform explicit sexual acts. Now all kids do silly things and that is part of being a teenager, but most silly things we did as teenagers are not able to be accessed or found out about many years later on.
Kids are not educated about the permanent nature of the Internet, most people do believe that if you delete something it is gone. When you delete something it usually only means it is not accessible from that particular location you are accessing it from. Deleting does not destroy!. The file, image etc still exists, it exists on a database, on a web page, on someones hard drive, in Cyber Space!. We need to make not only our children understand this, but our friends and our families as well.
If you wanted your children to play a musical instrument, what did you do?, if you wanted your children to excel at a sport what would you do? Sure most of these things are taught at school but only at a basic level. My guess is you paid a tutor or a coach to teach and train your children the skills that you were unable to teach them. Why won't people consider paying for, or for that matter, even going to free tutorials on Cyber Security. I actually notice peoples eyes glaze over as I start to tell them about issues they need to look out for.
We are the start of generations to come that must pass on the knowledge and wisdom that will protect out children and their children in the ever changing connected world that we live in. One place I would like you to start thinking about is "checking in" and the dangers it presents, people are able to form a profile of where you are, when you are there, who you are with or not with, and when you are NOT at your home, or NOT with your kids.
The lady I was lucky to meet is Leonie Smith, and she has a large online presence as the "The Cyber Safety Lady" http://thecybersafetylady.com.au/ Leonie is extremely dedicated and passionate about this subject, and as one would expect has every avenue of social media covered with her presence! including a You Tube channel which contains how to tutorials on setting up and controlling user accounts and controlling privacy settings.
Leonie also hosts free community Cyber Safety workshops and is available for a small fee to host private online tutorials for groups of parents. Definitely worth checking out Leonie's web page, even if you do not have children, because remember, the problem is!, if we don't have the knowledge! we are unable able to pass it on. You can also follow Leonie on twitter at _LeonieGSmith
Have a Happy and Safe Easter and be Safe Online
1 comment:
This is a great post, all parents need to take note of it!
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