Children have most to gain but are most at risk in digital world
As a mother of a teenager, there are issues that keep me up at night when I think about the digital world and what our children are exposed to these days.
According to an article by the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health on the digital world: “The internet and the means to access it, such as tablets and smartphones, along with social media platforms and messaging apps, have become integral to the lives of youth . . .
“They have transformed their education and learning, the way they make and maintain friendships, how they spend their leisure time, and their engagement with wider society.”
A Unicef report, State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World, reveals that one in three internet users is younger than 18 years and 71% of 15–24-yearolds are online, making them the most connected age group.
There are definitely substantial opportunities that the digital age brings, but it also comes with a diverse range of risks and harms.
Digital technologies have increased the scale of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Child sex offenders have increased access to children through unprotected social media profiles and online gaming forums. Technological advances have allowed individual offenders and trafficking rings to evade detection through encrypted platforms and the creation of false identities.
Children can also obtain intimate photos of a peer and share them with or without their consent.
Digital advances have meant that bullying is no longer left at the school gates; cyberbullying is a new method for bullies to hurt and humiliate their victims.
Words and images posted online that are designed to cause harm are also difficult to delete, increasing the risk of re-victimisation.
These issues keep us parents paranoid about the digital world.
As I almost fall into the BBT (born before technology) group, I understand how technology helps children to learn things they would otherwise not know about, but I’m still a bit sceptical. The problem comes with understanding the limits of what they are exposed to.
With my child, we work on a principle of trust I give her the leeway to use technology and then trust she will be responsible enough to know what is not good for her and make the right decisions based on the values I’ve taught her.
I add in a huge dose of prayer to go with that. There’s a conversation I heard on Morning Live a while back between Leanne and someone she was interviewing in which they said as parents we teach our children the right values, then hope and pray that when they are out there alone in the world they will apply these fundamental principles.
I know I can’t babysit my child every minute of the day when it comes to what she looks at on her phone.
As a parent though, this doesn’t stop me from being scared because of the kind of world we live in.
The lawlessness in the country alone makes it difficult to trust anything any more.
But I agree with the Unicef report that “Children and adolescents have the most to gain and are the most at risk from digital technologies. They must be at the forefront of national and global digital policies, not only to protect them from online harm, but also to allow technology to help them fulfil their full potential”.
Our role as parents is to have these ongoing conversations with our children about the potential risks so they can look out for them.
It’s clear technology is not going anywhere instead, it is advancing every day and it does have a great deal of benefits, but we still need to be cautious.
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- Miranda Lusiba is the founding director of Strangé Consulting –a boutique PR agency specialising in communication, media relations, freelance writing, reputation management and media training.
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