Controlling Your Child's Online Activities

Recent news about a young male adolescent in London being molested by three adult men whom the boy knew via the internet

reminds us of how important it is to save guard our children at home from any possible dangers threatening them while they

are surfing the internet. The type of crime that occurred in London has also occurred in many parts of the world. While their

parents are away from home at work or out of town, the present day children are busy with their own world of gaming and

networking through the internet. Many parents may think that their children are fully safe from any dangers when their kids

are home surfing the net in their comfortable bedroom alone. They may forget that the internet world is full of potential

dangers that may threaten their kids.

There many types of dangers that may threaten ignorant children who explore the net without any guidance from their parents

or guardians. Among clear dangers are irresponsible adults who intend to exploit them as slaves by employing them as

underpaid workers for companies who cannot afford to pay their workers properly, or by sexually exploiting them in the porn

industry in the making of porn movies for phedophiles, or by selling them directly to the phedophiles who are ready to pay

big sum for satisfying their sexual desire with children and young adults. Another potential danger is the world of online

gambling who seduce the children to steal their parent's money and involve themselves in gambling.

Considering the potential dangers of the internet, parents should take an extra effort to supervise their child's online

activities everyday. As they enter the age of puberty, adolescent are eager to know everything related to sexual behaviours

of adult people. At present, the information, be it accurate or inaccurate, on the internet is abundant. Parents should be

able to create a condition in which their children are willing to be open to them related to the use of the internet, in

order that they may not be misled by irresponsible adult people they meet on the net. Parents should know the kinds of people

whom their children interact with on the internet.

Social media such as Facebook and Twitter have become very popular forums of social interaction regardless of ages,

nationalities, and gender. Unfortunately, the social media are not always used for positive and useful purposes. Many kinds

of crimes are committed by means of these social media, such fraud, cheating, and threatening the victims of the crimes.

Parents should ensure that their children are connected with good people via these forums, otherwise they maybe exposed to

the possibility of becoming the victims of abuse, sexual molestation, and even human trafficking beyond their awareness. Most

frequent examples of crimes that we often find on the net involve young girls who are threatened by older men to satisfy

their sexual lust with a threat that their semi nude or naked photos will be displayed on the net if they refuse to obey the

men. Through their newly established friendship, the men have abused the friendship and forced the girls to obey them. This

modus operandi indicates that some young girls have been easily seduced and trapped into a situation where they have no

choice but to follow the bad guys.

Which regard to the crimes committed through the use of the social media such as Facebook and Twitter, parents should be

fully aware of how their children use their social media friendship, whom and what kind of people they are associated with on

their social media, what activities they carry out, and whether or not these activities are continued offline. And parents

should also be aware of the interconnection among their children's social media accounts and their gadgets, such as cell

phones, iPads, home computer, and laptop. Being fully aware of the possible dangers will open up the ways to better

anticipate and avoid them before they happen to your children.

Majelis is a librarian, an English teacher, and a translator working at the Library of Graduate Program of Sriwijaya

University (Pascasarjana Unsri), Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia. You can contact him via his website:

http://www.pemburu-dolar.com

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