No application is completely safe.. This is how your children learn to protect themselves on social media

Most social media requires a user to be at least 13 years old to be able to use it, however many young children sign in, and no platform is 100% secure.

Children can find pornographic or forbidden images of their age on the Internet, without searching for them, and they receive messages from strangers.

It happens in the most safe places for children to use, such as Fitbit, Google Docs, and Pinterest.

Parents are irritated about trying to manage what their kids see online, especially when they think they've done all the parental controls, installed all of their "web filters", and then their kids receive a friend request from a stranger, or find pictures of women in underwear while searching for Cake recipes.

Bark has warned parents that because there was an error in the Facebook search engine, typing a single letter into the search bar and then choosing to view video results resulted in a long list of clips. sexually explicit video.

"We are investigating reports of inappropriate content appearing in some searches," a Facebook spokeswoman said. "We are implementing changes and, out of extreme caution, have disabled certain parts of search until we have completed the investigation. We apologize for this error."

Last December, Heather Gelstrap's 12-year-old daughter received a friend request via the Ftbit app from a stranger, whose profile picture was of a partially nude woman, and her mother removed her daughter's email address from the app.

A FitBit ice2 spokeswoman said the FitBit ice2 is designed for children 6 years of age and older and has been developed with child safety in mind; So all friend requests go to the parent's account for approval.

Even with versions intended for users 13 and older—like the Fitbit Alta owned by Ms. Gilstrap's daughter; There are ways to report inappropriate content and adjust settings to keep certain information private.

Tracey Bennett, clinical psychologist and author of a book on protecting children in the digital world said; "People tend to think that social media is safe, but that's not true, sometimes the predators are the kids themselves."

The role of parents in the digital world

Determine how prepared your child is, and the first thing to consider before giving kids a smartphone, a social media account, or online games; It is assessing their readiness, helping them adapt is probably more effective than trying to protect them from all the evils of the Internet.

Diana Graber, author of Raising People in a Digital World: Helping Children Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology; A checklist that can help parents decide when their children are ready to post on social media, or play games online.

Parents can ask themselves questions such as: "Can he manage his information online?" or "Can he protect his privacy online?" And if you decide that your child is ready, some experts suggest developing a technology contract outlining the rules for using technology and the consequences of violating it.

The nonprofit social media safety has started offering a free online course on how to keep kids safe on social media.

Children and their digital reputation

Experts agree that the best defense is to have open and ongoing discussions about how to keep children safe. This sounds simple, but where do you start?

Experts suggest talking to young children about how they feel when something makes them uncomfortable so that they recognize those feelings when they encounter something upsetting online. "You could say have you ever talked to someone and they made you feel super weird even if you didn't know why?" Dr. Bennett said.

With older children, she recommends having weekly discussions on news topics. Parents receive weekly articles that can serve as the start of a discussion, when parents seem interested in the virtual world children will give you information about their visits to the virtual world.”

Take advantage of online safety tools and involve your child. No parental control is completely foolproof—or even safe for kids—but a little effort can go a long way.

Most apps have mechanisms that include blocking and reporting bad actors and explicit filtering of harmful content. You can set up device parental controls with varying degrees of accuracy, depending on the type of system.

For example, Chromebooks have some useful controls, but you can't set specific hours that kids can use certain apps or services. For more control, you can block inappropriate apps and content through a Wi-Fi router, or by using an additional networking device like Circle.

Experts say kids are less likely to circumvent parental controls if you set it up with them and explain the rationale behind it. The settings you choose will likely vary depending on each child's age and maturity level.

For example, you might allow a 10-year-old to play video games online with people they don't know in real life, if they're mature enough to block and report friends who aren't playing well, but you can choose more when you make restrictive settings for a 10-year-old 7 years old.

In addition, teaching your children how to use the tools can help them in the future.