Recommendations for a Family Plan for the Use of Technologies

By Admin | October 17, 2022

“Emails are old stuff”, “Have you seen the last video on my youtube channel? “

2 quotes taken directly from my family and their entourage, age group: elementary and middle school. Incredible, isn’t it?

We participated in a project with Kaspersky, the world’s leading manufacturer of web and technology security products, and there are several things we want to tell you about. If you think you already know a lot about how to “protect” your children from cyberbullying and bad behavior online, I invite you to read and comment to tell us how you behaved and what you think works. But mostly I am convinced that a refresher is useful for everyone …

A child who is good at using technology DOESN’T KNOW how to deal with technology if you don’t teach them.

The Internet is fantastic, it is unthinkable for our children to live without digital technology … luckier, no one can inflict such pain on us).

Our children are very familiar with technology, but knowing how to configure a video game or interpret the logic of an app better than us does not make them competent, conscious, and aware of what are the consequences of their digital behaviors, what are the dangers or the rules (of law, not just of behavior) that apply on the network as well as outside.

Did you as a parent know that even if you know how to use technology worse than them, you have things to teach about technology?

You know when you were little, you knew how to ride a bike and even a scooter, but when you had to go around the street, your grandmother, who didn’t know how to ride a bike (let alone a scooter) and didn’t even have a driving license, told you how to behave on the street and took you by the hand to cross? Here you are…

The web is above all a wealth, as are motorways and means of transport, but each of us knows that road education is important for children: we explain to them how to behave when they are on the road, what dangers to watch out for, what tools they are indispensable. At first, we let them experience the road by our side, giving them their hand, then slowly we give them freedom, until they are mature and responsible enough to go around alone on foot, then by bike, and so on …

Internet is the same thing: it is indispensable, and little by little we will be able to leave them alone, but at the beginning, it is necessary to support them, explain to them and, above all, open a channel of dialogue with them. We can and must do it, even if we don’t know how to do the things they do.

The danger of the internet is not Facebook

“Well but my children are still small, they don’t use the internet, they just play games on the tablet.”

We, adults, think that the dangers of the internet come from Facebook … but did you know that when children play on their PlayStation, or electronic games on mobile phones, they are in contact with other unknown players with whom they chat via chat, team up and do they think they have friends? And when they see a video on Youtube using your tablet, Youtube thinks that it is an adult who is browsing and therefore does not filter the contents.

Internet is not Facebook, it is Whatsapp chat, video game chat, or one of the many emerging social networks often unknown to us parents, it is Youtube, which is now the channel that our children watch most often

Cyberbullying and web crime exist, they are widespread and if your kids or family experience cyberbullying, they will hardly tell you about it if you have not created the premises for dialogue on these issues as well.

1 in 5 boys between the ages of 12 and 17 has experienced cyberbullying (Kaspersky Lab research in collaboration with new media psychologists at the University of Wuerzburg), i.e. situations in which a person is targeted, excluded, or ridiculed, or dangerous behavior on the net.

50% of victims of dangerous or unpleasant behavior do not mention it to their parents.

Cybercrime is the most lucrative crime in the world right now.

What do you do?

4 things to do digital education with your children

1. Talk to the online security guys, just over a quarter of an hour is enough, or the space of a frugal lunch. Remind them that you are always available to answer their questions and above all if something or someone makes them uncomfortable, or they think they have done something wrong it is very important that they tell you about it so that you can help them.

In the next paragraph, we suggest the 5 important things to tell him.

2. Always remember that the bullied victim is NOT the culprit (be it your child or another child). If a girl sends a daring photo of herself to a friend and they make it public, who is to blame? The girl has made a mistake, but the friend has no right to make it public without the consent of the person concerned. She is the victim, he is the culprit.

3. Install virus protection on tools used in the family (including tablets and smartphones !!! ). Viruses, increasingly sophisticated, are the tool with which cyber crimes are perpetrated. By browsing, you and your family can provide cyber criminals with sensitive and important information that they can use to harm you. Remember that paid antiviruses are updated constantly and therefore offer more effective protections.

4. Use a parental control tool: parental controls are mobile applications to install that allow you to create rules and give you information on the behavior of your family when they use smartphones, computers, and tablets.

Parental control allows you to set, for example, time restrictions, prevent browsing on sites that are not suitable for your family or on sites that Kaspersky detects as dangerous (because they generate viruses for example), tell you what your children have done, and seen Network.

Posted in Uncategorized