Upon entering the unknown land of cyberspace, children get lost or caught in dangerous traps that are not easy to get rid of. Accordingly, parents must help their children cross this unknown land safely.
Parents have a key role to play in protecting their children from the harms and threats of cyberspace, especially as their children study through cyberspace on coronary days. Accordingly, they should raise their knowledge and awareness and prevent danger in this area by raising awareness among children and accompanying them in this environment.
Do not talk to strangers is constant advice from parents. This principle also applies in cyberspace, so according to experts, if you do not know the sender of the message, put aside curiosity and dismiss the message, such messages may not only disturb the peace of the family but sometimes carry malware and viruses.
Parents should consider time limits for using their phones and tablets to work in cyberspace. They should try to be present when children use smart devices because being with children in cyberspace and monitoring their activities to reduce Cyber threats are very important.
Cyber police experts advise parents to be careful in choosing a computer game because isolation is one of the most important negative effects of online games. Instead of socializing and interacting and playing with peers, children spend their time playing computer games and are therefore socially isolated.
Computer games can stimulate children’s intellectual development. On the other side, computer games can also be a factor in promoting violence and inactivity in children. Therefore, recognizing the benefits and harms of these games by parents can play an important role in choosing computer games for children.
Cyberspace experts also advise parents to talk to their children about the proper use of mobile phones and how they should use them and teach them when, where, and how to use mobile phones and warn them about the effects of online games.
Currently, most of the education of students is done through cyberspace, so the support and attention of parents to their children’s activities in this space is more necessary.
Since the age category for receiving cyberspace content is not observed in Iran, receiving inappropriate content is one of the most important threats to this space for children.
Membership in various channels and groups, use of Internet censorship circumvention, and visiting inappropriate sites are other threats to cyberspace for children and show the need for parents to accompany their children. Parents can use parental control and monitoring tools to closely control their children’s activities in cyberspace. Programs designed to monitor children target Internet usage time and smart devices, and increase family cybersecurity.
Given that the use of external and filtered programs requires the use of filtering software, parents should be careful that their children do not use foreign and filtered programs to attend virtual training classes. Keep in mind that Obtain the required programs and software from reputable and official sources to prevent the installation of malware and malicious files.
Lack of parental control over children’s online activities can have dangerous consequences for children and families. As mentioned, due to the rapid change of technology and the addition of new facilities and services in the context of cyberspace, parents should become more familiar with this space and receive the necessary training in this area. In this way, parents can get help from people familiar with this space, online tutorials, and books.
With the growth of information technology and smartphones, cybercrime has increased. The growth of cybercrime reflects an increase in cyber threats to users.
To reduce the number of threats and prevent the occurrence of cybercrime, it is necessary to increase public awareness and information about the harms and threats of cyberspace.
Ways to protect the security and privacy of children in cyberspace
With the spread of the Internet, people’s access to various services offered in cyberspace has increased. Children are no exception, and from generation to generation we see the maturity of their abilities to use different technologies and use the Internet.
With these developments, the various threats posed in various cyberspace on social networks have greatly increased concerns about the safety of children.
One of the reasons for the importance of this issue is the greater vulnerability of children in understanding privacy and awareness of issues around it.
In the simplest form of this vulnerability, for example, privacy policies on social media may be displayed to children and adolescents in a language other than their mother tongue, which is certainly not well understood by the child. Here are the key points that cyber police experts emphasize for keeping children safe in cyberspace:
۱ – Be careful that young children do not use cyberspace without supervision.
۲ – Check the security and privacy settings of the device regularly.
۳ – Check the privacy settings of accounts regularly.
۴ – Use filtering and monitoring software.
۵. Make rules for the use of social networks and devices.
۶ – Try to know the habits of your children and adolescents.
۷- Be up to date on new technologies.
۸- Be careful of images and content that your children post on social networks.
۹- Internet connection for children in a private room is prohibited.
Solutions for controlling children in cyberspace
Cyber police have provided other tips and tricks to ensure what content children have access to in cyberspace, some of which are as follows:
۱. Enabling Safe Search is a feature that many external search engines use to limit and prevent the display of immoral content and images. Parents can enable this option in search engines to make it more comfortable for teens.
۲. To prevent injuries related to computer games, parents should pay attention to the classification of games and provide only games for their children that are age-appropriate and approved.
۳. By installing control software on the child’s mobile phone or personal computer. In addition to monitoring his activities, you can also set limits on the number of hours of using computer games Which will prevent the child from becoming addicted to games and other possible injuries.
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Saeed Souzangar
Network Security Instructure
Founder and CEO at imenaria.org
