How To Protect Children From Cybercrime & Inappropriate Content While Using Internet

Nowadays where on one hand, use of the internet by youth is increasing day-to-day, on the other hand, cybercrime by youngsters is also increasing. It is becoming tough for parents and teachers to protect children from the internet world either while playing online games or surfing. Cybercrime, data stealing, cyberbullying, etc., these are some threats that children face. This doesn’t means that we have to keep youngster away from new technologies. But, the need is to make them realize that what to do and what not to. This blog will make readers aware of preventive measures to decrease harsh impact of Cybercrime on youth.

The Need for Awareness

Cybercrime is everywhere and as per the recent reports, it is being stated that in every ten-minute Cybercrime happens. A survey from certain sources committed that there were around 27,482 Cybercrime cases reported last year in a country, from Jan 2017 to June 2017. After having a deep analysis of these cases, we figured out that maximum number of Cybercrimes are committed by youngsters. Around 5,102 people were arrested while committing Cybercrime. Out of this, 3,188 people belong to 18-30 age group and 98 were below 18. Having a big question mark in mind? Almost all the children use the internet everyday, but, the problem is that they hardly know that what are the litigates in a cyber country for the activities like cyberbullying, hacking, etc.

Top 6 Measures to Prevent Cybercrime Among Youth

To reduce the negative impact of Cybercrime on youth, we are providing you six safety measures for the same. At least parents should seriously read & share these preventive tips to keep their and other children safe from becoming the culprit.

1. Never have a conversation with strangers: Timely check that your children are known from the risks that are associated while talking to the stranger. Make sure that they are not sharing their personal information with someone whom they contacted only on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Anonymity in the internet world can be more dangerous than in the real life.
2. Check kids behavior on social networks: Several types of activities like posting classroom photos, nasty comments, etc., which a child do on social sites reflect the sorts of consequences. The embarrassment feeling of adding parents as friends on the Facebook account makes it tough to monitor them. In such case, the ideal suggestion is to acquire the child’s trust and then, learn the activities that he / she is doing on social sites. This tip to prevent Cybercrime among youth include knowledge of what type of things are getting posted on social media, what are the account privacy settings, etc.
3. Provide a list of Rules that Children Needs to Follow: Children should be provided with a list of do’s and dont’s that they need to keep in mind while the internet surfing. If parents think that children are not listening to their rules seriously then, make the words stick in their mind by writing rules on the paper. Paste this paper with safety tips just next to the place of the computer to be safe from negative impact of Cybercrime on youth. This will act as a constant reminder and make a child feel that he is being monitored by parents, even in their physical absence.
4. Guide Youngsters to Raise Voice on Bullies: Usually on the gaming websites, some players play games with the aim of harassing and taunting the opponent player. These kind of participants are considered as cyberbullies and this type of activity is known as cyberbullying. In this scenario, a good relationship between parents and children is essential. It is so because if someone is bullying a child on the internet then, instead of taking action on own (that might go wrong without any proper guidance) he or she will contact to his / her parents and share the problem.
5. Don’t Provide Computer in a Private Area: This safety measure to prevent Cybercrime among youth is generally for children below 20 years. If your child is having his / her computer setup in a private room then, they might dare to do the things that they should not do. If the machine is stationed in a living area then, lack of privacy will keep kids away from attempting the wrong things. By adopting this measure, your child might interact with you in living area even when he or she is online.
6. Update Child With What’s Going Around Us: Instead of asking children to Google all things on internet, try to spend some time with them and talk to them. It is the responsibility of parents to take out at least 30 minutes from their busy schedule and have a conversation with their child. Parents should tell them about Cybercrime and how can they keep themselves away from it. This will be a huge contributing in preventing Cybercrime among youth. There is the need to change the mindset of youngster that, hacking is not a joke; it is something that can ruin one’s life.

Conclusion

These days the biggest challenge is to be safe from Cybercrime. It is so because here the crime increases with development and accessing of technologies around the world. Therefore, it is mandatory to exercise some safety measures to reduce harsh impact of Cybercrime on youth. Apart from these, there are more preventive tips but, instead of running to read them you should implement these in your real life.