Parents must be alert to dangers of internet

GEORGE Bernard Shaw said you should take care never to give a child a book that you had not read yourself. Today, most children can have phones and unlimited access online. Without controls, these can deliver them to the darkest, most predatory places. There is no absolute safety.

Today’s revelation that the problem of “sextortion” has become so acute that gardaí are working with schools to get images of their uniforms in the fight against online exploitation shows just how frighteningly insidious and pernicious the problem has become.

Ideally, you ought to be able to prevent information collected about you for one purpose from being used for others, but we as adults can’t. So how can a child?

In the realms of child protection, the only way to avoid “selfie harm” is to take back control and responsibility for privacy. The internet is insecure and the age of innocence is truly dead. Aldous Huxley could hardly have known how prophetic his words would be when he wrote: “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”

With one click, a child can be tricked into sharing the most intimate details of their life with someone with whom you wouldn’t let them share a park bench. The vulnerability is not only confined to children – the disturbing pictures from Ballyragget show the potential for unforeseen consequences when people mistake online fantasy for reality, and boundaries of decency and respect dissolve.

A relaxed approach to the dangers of manipulative sexualisation of online exchanges is irresponsible. We can’t hope to change something that has become so deep-rooted and all-pervasive by banging our heads against it.

Sexploitation is bullying at its darkest, most sinister and destructive levels. They say it takes a village to raise a child, not a world-wide web. Borders must be recognised, policed and understood.