Online Dangers And Internet Safety Tips For Teens In 2024
Zika Rakita
Senior Security Consultant specializing in Threat Intelligence and Risk Analysis
Social media is an integral part of most teenagers' lives nowadays. However, using the internet exposes our kids to various risks. Ensuring their safety is a priority for all of us.?
This article provides internet safety tips for teens to help you shield your child from explicit sexual content and violence, cyberbullying, child predators, cyber kidnapping, sextortion, and other online dangers in 2024. Let's go ahead and get started.
Online Dangers
The internet offers a myriad of benefits, especially for curious children. Thanks to numerous social platforms and applications, they can communicate, learn, socialize, and play. However, we must be aware of many perils lurking in the dark to protect our youngsters. Let me outline the most frequent ones below so you can keep your kids safe.
Inappropriate Multimedia
As Pew Research Center reports, 97% of teens surf the internet daily, a 5% growth compared to previous generations. As they engage in various online activities, they often stumble upon inappropriate content such as offensive messages, pornography, and violent material. This negatively impacts their mental and emotional well-being.
Studies show that exposure to content that promotes violence can increase children's aggressive behavior. Also, this can undermine their mental health, resulting in anxiety, fear, depression, and other related issues. Furthermore, it can force youths to become unresponsive to violent behavior. In other words, they accept being harassed as normal, which makes them susceptible to online abusers.
It is worrisome that some parents are unaware of how much time their kids spend online. Monitoring of children’s internet usage is necessary.
Online Predators
The web has opened the floodgates for child exploiters. They include pedophiles, child traffickers, and other vicious criminals who prey on children. They employ social engineering , a manipulative technique that trades on psychology and emotions.
By taking advantage of social media, using fake profiles, bogus websites, and other dirty tricks, online predators aim to acquire child photographs, videos, and other personal information. This can lead to more profound issues, such as stalking, harassment, blackmailing, and abduction.
There is a strong connection between child kidnapping and social media, according to the FBI. Experts warn that human traffickers use dating sites and other apps as a trap. Knowing that over 90% of teenagers use social networks raises considerable concern and requires immediate action.
In addition, criminals can exploit children’s information to frame a false kidnapping, known as cyber or virtual kidnapping.
Track your child's internet activities to safeguard them from online predators and maintain a secure and supportive online environment.
Cyber Kidnapping
Cyber kidnapping has become a common fraud on the internet. Unlike actual abduction, a victim is reportedly kidnapped. Teenagers studying away from home in another city or abroad are especially vulnerable. In this setup, both victims and parents are played.
The kidnappers fabricate a plausible situation where they coerce a victim into cooperating with blackmail and intimidation; then they contact the victim’s parents to extort money for their release.
In a recent virtual kidnapping case of a Chinese exchange student in the USA, abductors forced the victim to pretend to be abducted by threatening to hurt their family. The kid has feigned abduction by faking photos in which they were held hostage. As a result, the parents paid an 80,000 USD ransom. Parents who were in China received pictures of the alleged kidnapping and were convinced their child had been abducted.
Many teens and parents worldwide have fallen victim to similar fraudulent schemes. In such cases, it is critical to act fast and contact experts to determine whether a kidnapping has occurred.
Additionally, teenagers must be encouraged to report any incidents to the authorities and parents, especially cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is an emerging issue. Pew Research Center discovered that half of teenagers in the United States have been subjected to online harassment by their peers. Teens use name-calling, defamation, and explicit photos of persons they want to victimize. This can lead to embarrassment, distress, and mental problems.
This disturbing trend concerns parents, teachers, and mental health professionals. However, many parents don't know if their children are disturbed, which can be fatal to children in case of sextortion.
Sextortion
Sextortion is a form of extortion targeting mainly minors online — especially boys between 14 and 18 years. It involves victims receiving intimate photos and sending their own in exchange. The extortionist then threatens to publicly share compromising pictures unless the victim meets their demands, which usually include money. This online crime has claimed the lives of many teenagers so far.?
A recent case of a 16-year-old boy from Scotland who committed suicide after being blackmailed highlights the urgency of this matter. According to the BBC, the boy was approached by blackmailers impersonating a teenage girl. They exchanged explicit images, which criminals used as leverage to pressure the boy into giving them money. Unfortunately, under excessive stress and torment, the victim took his own life shortly after.
Many law enforcement agencies worldwide have warned against this particular type of cybercrime. Reported cases worldwide almost tripled in the past two years, as the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported.
Raising awareness among parents, schools, and children is crucial in fighting against sextortion. Please continue reading to learn more about how to deal with online dangers.
The Solutions
Be a Caring Parent
Does your parenting style matter? A National Institutes of Health survey indicates that it can't prevent your child from using the internet. Also,? you will struggle if you are an authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, or neglectful parent.?
On the other hand, being a caring parent is way better. It involves open and honest parent-child communication. Let your children know they can come to you for help with any problem.
They mustn't be afraid of being reprimanded. With too strict discipline, children tend to avoid reporting issues. They break the rules to evade punishment. Similarly, poor tutoring gives unwanted results. That's why parents should establish reasonable boundaries.
Set Clear Rules
Setting specific and fair limitations means balancing proper control and an acceptable degree of privacy. It can involve many things, such as:
Although drawing the line is challenging, it will help you minimize threats. Be rational and persistent, but pay attention to avoid being too intrusive. Also, refrain from being judgmental when your kid makes a mistake. Show understanding.
Be Compassionate
Being an attentive parent involves showing support to your children in all situations. When they are wrong, explain the implications in a sympathetic, candid, and respectful way. Understanding their needs and watching out for any behavioral changes is vital for detecting issues timely. React if you discover any signs of worry or aggression.
Be open-minded and address all questions and concerns in a timely and transparent manner. Teach your kids how to identify and avoid possible dangers. Let them value their personal space.
Respect Privacy
Privacy and security go hand in hand. Teenagers must understand the importance of preserving private information online. Educate your kids about what personal details are okay to share and how to set up privacy settings. This knowledge will help them create social media accounts correctly, play online video games safely, and join internet communities more securely.
Follow Safety Guidelines
You can also train your children to take preventive measures. I advise the following:
Additionally, you can set up parental control on children's devices and consider security programs.
Following experts, news, articles, and other publications will help you. Some great resources are Common Sense Media, NetSmartz, and ConnectSafely.
Security Software?
Many applications can assist you with keeping your kids safe online. I recommend the following apps:
These programs come with different features. They enable you to oversee online children's activities, check websites, create alerts, and stop improper content.?
Also, involve your kids and family and encourage them to use the internet responsibly.
Advocate Online Safety
Adopting a security culture is instrumental in ensuring digital wellness. You should promote responsible use among all family members. Be a role model for your kids. Help them understand that all of these are for their own good. In particular, they should become alert to predatory behavior.
Urge your youngsters to report odd situations, including:
Use Strong Passwords
I have already pointed out the importance of educating your children about safe internet use. Make sure they know how to create hard-to-guess passwords for devices and accounts. The following practices are helpful:
Talk About Cyberbullying?
Suggested safety methods involve an honest conversation about negative experiences on the internet. Surveys reveal that many teenagers are engaged in online abuse, either as bullies or victims. Encourage your kids to turn to you for help when bullied online. Equally important, discourage them from intimidating their peers.
Collaboration
Protecting youths from improper interactive media, online harassment, child molesters, virtual kidnapping, and sextortion isn't easy. Also, this problem concerns all of us. The solution requires an inclusive approach across all segments of society.
Governments play a crucial role in ensuring online safety. Enforcing child data protection legislation secures online privacy. For example, according to the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), U.S. education institutions must use automatic web filters that prevent access to unsafe websites.?
Besides, schools should organize awareness-raising programs about online dangers. Parents should engage in open discussion, while children should be free to seek assistance. It is important to remove stigmas and not to blame victims.?
Organization and collaboration can help minimize the growing threats on the internet and safeguard young users.
Final Word: Internet Safety Tips for Teens?
Children's increased internet use makes them more vulnerable to online dangers. Our responsibility is to ensure their well-being, but it is also challenging. Therefore, all segments of society should be involved in creating solutions.?
In this article, I provide internet safety tips for teens. If you require further security advice on alleviating inappropriate media, online predators, cyberbullying, cyber kidnapping, sextortion, and other threats, contact my company, Nemesis Protection , and me at [email protected] .