Half SA’s children have been cyberbullied

A RECENT survey has revealed that 51.5% of children in South Africa have been cyberbullied.

“The reason for this is the increase in connected societies. More and more people are online, especially the youth. There is clearly a lack of good cyber education and defensive tools,” said Digimune co-founder Simon CampbellYoung, who offered some safety tips.

Education is the first awareness step. Most children have access to online devices – either shared, or their own device - from a young age. By age 10, 30.5% of children have their own smartphone and 41.5% have access to a shared smartphone.

It is thus imperative to take time to go about exploring defensive tools that can help protect you and your family. It’s important to know about them and to think about these tools as an option, Campbell-Young said.

Limit the time spent on the internet. Cyberbullying has increased in South Africa during lockdown as more and more family members spend longer periods online. Parents are also allowing their children to spend more time online, which has been an overspill from the past 12 months, in terms of online education.

Be cautious of the information you share online. A number of cases have occurred locally and abroad where children have had indecent imagery of themselves uploaded on to social media platforms.

Online group chats, abusing another pupil or individual and the recent case at bishops, regarding rape, are prime examples.

Sharing less information online, being aware of the signs, managing your digital footprint, and using a monitoring tool and takedown service like digimune.com can help you protect children from becoming victims of cyberbullying.

Monitor your children’s devices. Many parents feel overwhelmed within cyberspace. Parents need to be able to monitor devices, monitor content, but also have an advanced threat notification solution.

The survey’s results revealed that children in the respondents’ communities have been a victim of the following cyber threats:

35% of children have been a victim of cyberstalking.

36.5% of children have fallen victim to online shaming.

43.5% of children willingly share their personal information on online platforms.

54% of children have accessed inappropriate content via digital platforms.

A staggering 51.5% of children have been cyberbullied.

More than one out of every two children in the respondents’ communities have been victims of cyberbullying, or have accessed adult or otherwise inappropriate content online.

Further, more than two out of five children have shared personal information online, and more than three out of 10 have been cyberstalked or been a victim of online shaming or revenge porn.

Campbell-Young said that, far from launching brute force attacks using rudimentary technology and techniques, cybercriminals harness the latest technology, bide their time and are strategic about their activities.

The theft of personal information or hacking into social media platforms are good examples of this.

Because criminals go on to sell this information on the dark web, it is in their interest for you, or your child, to be oblivious to the theft of information or the hack.

“Today, being online and having access to a variety of digital tools and platforms are a must-have, not a not a nice-to-have. From learning to creating, socialising and exercising, our online life is as important as our analogue life.

“Unfortunately, this has been weaponised by criminals wanting to profit from and wreak havoc in our, and our children’s, lives. Parents need to protect themselves and their families by harnessing technology as an important early warning system and an effective line of defence,” Campbell-Young said. |