Cybersafety: What can Mommy do?#MondayMommyMoments(48)

Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS)

6 years ago

Are you protecting your child? That’s what moms are supposed to do always.Right?But what if you cant?What if you are not there, then? How will you protect?”God made mothers because he couldn’t be everywhere.”Rudyard Kipling

But I do believe God is inside all of us. You need to look deep within. That’s my aim as a mommy. To teach my daughter to look for answers about good and bad inside own soul…I believe we all are born with deep insight and empathy. These two qualities can help you decide the right from wrong

Unfortunately, cybersafety and this decision of choosing right and wrong is difficult for small children. In fact difficult for adults too. Then should you give them the phone? Is stopping exposure the right sort of protection? I am a firm believer in prevention is the best cure.

[bctt tweet=”But what should you prevent the exposure or the reaction to it? #cybersecutity #MondayMommyMoments #drAmrita” username=”misra_amrita”]

I think you cannot protect against exposure until you shift to Antarctica. Not sure about internet connectivity there!So you need to teach mental defenses and behavioral skills to identify danger, dangerous people and dangerous links and media.

Too much screen time is anyways not recommended.But if you are honest, you do give your phone or tab when very busy right?That’s where a few things can help.Creative play with children to entertain them needs your participation and is a great way to keep children gadget free.

If its a school going child and child carries a phone, you don’t need to allow internet connectivity twenty-four seven. We survived without that, they will too. At home either have kids Youtube enabled or allow them to use Youtube linked to your account.Be careful that you have setting adjusted so that youtube will not show you inappropriate content.

Did you know even a few days back, videos by terror groups were freely aired on Youtube, as they garnered great views and had ads running? Imagine ! Only when the brands stepped back from allowing their ads to run next to terror videos that youtube pulled the plug.

Less than 18years children are not allowed facebook accounts and most social media accounts.It’s your job as a parent to check that.
No links or videos from unknown numbers should be opened.This should be a strict rule. Breaking will mean punishment.
Don’t share your child’s full frontal pictures and definitely never allow them to do that. For contests try giving a profile picture. That should work too.
Explain to your child that it’s never okay to take or upload inappropriate pictures on social media. Not own and not anybody else.Any friend or anyone who suggests that needs to be ignored. She should also let you know.
Teach them about videos or games which friends might want to show at school. Tell her she needs to come and discuss with you, you would like to know. If she feels embarrassed talking about it or afraid to tell you then she will know that it’s not the right kind of media she should be watching.
With smartphones everywhere and peer pressure being what it is until you can be our child’s confidante its difficult to protect.
Have a Total internet security on your phone and laptop everywhere.That’s important not just antivirus.
Do not download unknown apps and don’t allow apps to access the camera on a phone or laptop. You can adjust this in settings.

These can give me sleepless nights.I hope me talking to her every day will help.Also, this is one more battle you and me have to fight as mothers.I will be updating this post with more information soon.

Writing this for #MondayMommyMoments.