Parent Advisory: Top 5 Dangers Parents Should Consider When Gifting A Smartphone To Their Kids
WESTPORT, Conn. (PRWEB) February 04, 2019 -- Top 5 Online Dangers
1. Screen Time Addiction: Children, more than ever, have become glued to their smartphones. Relying on them for constant reassurance and companionship. Studies done by Common Sense Media reveal, “teenagers (ages 13-18) use an average of nine hours of entertainment media per day and that tweens (ages 8-12) use an average of six hours a day, not including time spent using media for school or homework.” These numbers are staggering and have led to new phrases being developed such as “vamping”, which describes tweens and teens who stay up all night on their smartphones. Psychology Today stated that a study done in Australia monitored “1,101 thirteen to sixteen-year-olds over four years of high school linked late-night texting and phone use to depressed moods, lower self-esteem, and reduced coping abilities. These symptoms go hand-in-hand with lower academic performance.” Screen time addiction is real, and its negative effects are unavoidable if not tended to properly.
2. Cyber bullying: According to the i-SAFE foundation, “over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online.” Cyber bullying is a serious problem that has led to many tweens and teens facing battles with depression, anxiety and sadly even commit suicide or have suicidal thoughts. Cyber bullying comes in many different shapes and sizes. It can happen through text messages, on social media platforms and through many different digital mediums. Cyber bullying does not only hurt the online reputation of the victim, but it affects everyone involved, including the bully. Cyber bullies often don’t consider how their poor choices will alter their digital footprint and can impact them when applying to jobs or colleges in the future. It is important to create a safe space where you and your children can have an open and healthy dialogue about cyber bullying.
3. Sexting: Racy pictures and text messages last forever. A concept many teens don’t understand until it is too late. New research done in 2018 by JAMA Pediatrics, found that 1 in 7 teens are sexting. Also, according to the study, “Boys are often portrayed as the requesters, and girls as the senders, of nude images or videos. Findings from our study debunk this widely held assumption and show that boys and girls are equally likely to participate in sexting.” CBS News weighed in on the study and added along with the many repercussions that come with sexting, “sextortion” is a significant issue. Sextortion refers to incidents where sexts sent by teens are then used against them as a threat or blackmail. Many teens can’t comprehend the short term and long-term consequences of sending inappropriate pictures and videos, which is why they need to be educated early on about the lasting damage sexting can do.
4. Online Predators: Do you know who your teens are talking to online? Better question, do your teens even know who they are talking to online? Online predators can be found everywhere online and many times mask their identities. According to Common Sense Media, most predators will reveal they are older which teenage girls will typically find attractive. There are online predators who participate in “bunny hunting” which Common Sense Media describes as “the process of picking a potential victim for "grooming": They'll look at social media posts and public chats to learn about the kid first. Once they've selected someone, they may begin the grooming phase, which often involves friending the target's contacts, engaging in increasingly personal conversations to build trust, taking the conversation to other platforms (like instant messaging), requesting pictures, and finally requesting offline contact.” These online predators’ mission is to take advantage of your children’s vulnerabilities, so teach your children the importance of never engaging with anyone online that they have not met in person.
5. Use of Risky Apps: We all remember our teenage years and the mistakes we may have made along the way. But what is different for children growing up in this digital age is that they have access to risky apps right at their fingertips. Apps such as Houseparty, Tinder, Ask.fm, Kik Messenger, Snapchat, and Vsco. Though many of these apps don’t sound threatening, it is how teens use these apps to communicate inappropriately and/or maliciously that make them dangerous. Warning signs that your child is involved in risky online behavior includes: deleting messages, closing the browser when a parent enters the room, using private browser modes, creating fake social media accounts, clearing browser history, much more. If you are worried about what apps your children are using online it is crucial you communicate with them about their limits.
Awareness Technologies offers two of the best parental control and monitoring apps on the market, Screen Time and WebWatcher. These apps will allow you to take back control before your children ever fall victim to screen time addiction, cyberbullying, sexting, or even online predators. In a recent interview with News 12 Connecticut, Erika Horn, mother of two teens, explains why she loves Screen Time and WebWatcher, “It really prevents them from doing anything that would have any permeance on their digital footprint. They know who’s the boss still in the house.”
The responsibility that lies on children when gifted a device, is not something that should be taken lightly. The actions they take online will follow them for the rest of their lives and many children are not mature enough to understand those long-term repercussions. As a parent, it is your job to be informed and to use the tools available to you through WebWatcher and Screen Time to make sure your children stay safe.
ABOUT SCREEN TIME AND WEBWATCHER:
Screen Time is designed to help parents get a handle on their kid’s screen use. Parents seem to particularly love the Pause Button – a button they can press on their own smartphones, that “pauses” their kids’ devices remotely. They can also set daily screen time limits, block certain apps at specific times of day plus lots of other features that are super useful to parents. https://screentimelabs.com/
WebWatcher lets parents more closely monitor their tweens’ and teens’ device use. All products are discreet and thus tamper proof, and all recorded data is sent to a secure web-based account which allows you to monitor remotely from any device. WebWatcher allows parents to view messages (texts, Facebook and other social media), call history, photos, website history, GPS and more, all from the palm of your hand! https://www.webwatcher.com/freetrial/3/
Jillian Kennedy, Awareness Technologies, https://awarenesstechnologies.com/, (203) 295-7614, [email protected]
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