Tag: #saferinternetday

Facebook Ireland releases online safety tips to help parents and young people stay safe online. #SaferInternetDay #SID2021

Ahead of Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 9th of February, Facebook Ireland releases online safety tips to help parents and young people stay safe online.

In Ireland, Facebook works with a number of safety experts including a partnership with the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre at Dublin City University on the FUSE programme which educates teachers, students and parents on bullying, cyberbullying, empathy, reporting and online safety. They also work with SpunOut.ie, Pieta House and Jigsaw to develop content policies, resources and safety guides such as the Facebook Safety Centre, Bullying Prevention Hub and Parent Portal.

Below are tips that have been developed with input from Irish safety partners:

1 – Start a conversation with your child early, before they are on social media

Research shows that children as young as six have access to smartphones or tablets. Start talking to your children about technology, before they hit 13 when they are allowed on social media. If your teen is on Facebook or Instagram, consider friending or following them.

2 – Be mindful of age restrictions

Facebook and Instagram require everyone to be 13 years old before they can create an account.  

3 – Let your teen know that the same rules apply online as apply offline

Just as you might tell your child to look both ways before crossing the street or to wear a helmet while riding their bike, teach them to think before they share online or accept a friend request from a stranger.

4 – Ask your teenager to teach you

Not on social media? Or, maybe you’re interested in trying a streaming music service? If there’s a service your teen is using, and you have no idea how it works – ask them to show you. The conversation can also serve as an opportunity to talk about issues of safety, privacy and security. This way you’re empowering them to show you how something works which is probably a nice novelty for them!

5- Identify and seize key moments

For example, when your child gets their first mobile phone, it’s a good time to set ground rules. When they are old enough to join Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites, it’s a good time to talk about safe sharing.

6- Help Them Manage Their Time Online

Try to be a good role model. The adage that children will “do as you do, not as you say” is as true online as it is offline. If you set time restrictions on when your teen can use social media or be online (for example no messaging  after 10:00 PM), follow the same rules.

7 – Help them to check and manage their privacy settings.

Once your teen has set up a social media account, they can use tools and settings to help them manage their accounts. Facebook and Instagram, have privacy settings to control who can friend them, who can see their posts, and if they share details such as their location by default.  Instagram offers many flexible tools to keep teens safe online including bullying filtering, caption warnings and sensitivity screens.  Teens can also restrict unwanted interactions on their profiles and easily report accounts, comments and posts for bullying.

8 – Tell them to report if they see something they are concerned about

As we would in real life, we should treat each other with empathy and respect on social media.  For that reason, we’ve developed a set of policies (Community Standards) that define what is and isn’t okay to share on our platforms. There is a link on nearly every Facebook and Instagram post for reporting abuse, bullying, harassment and other issues. Our global teams work 24/7 to review things you report and remove anything that violates our Community Standards. We aim to review the majority of reports within 24 hours.

9 – Make it a shared experience

You can enjoy capturing family moments with film or photo and have fun together editing, adding filters and using the augmented reality features like bunny ears! You could ask your teen what their favourite thing is to do online – perhaps it’s gaming, or talking to their friends, or sharing photos together. You could talk about what you like to do online, and this way you’re sharing technology together – a great conversation starter!

 10 – Trust yourself

Typically, you can adopt the same parenting style for your teen’s online activities as you do for their offline activities. If you find that your teen responds best to a negotiated agreement, create a contract that you can both sign. Or, maybe your teen just needs to know the basic rules.

Commenting on Safer Internet Day, Amy McArdle, Safety Policy Manager, EMEA, at Facebook said: “People come to Facebook to share their stories and connect with friends and family, but none of this is possible if people don’t feel safe on our apps. That’s why we’re always working to build a safer and more supportive community. We want to empower people, young and old, to make digitally safe decisions and give them the information they need to navigate an increasingly digital world. This is why we are sharing tips to help parents support their children in staying safe on our platforms.

 

Darran Heaney, Project Manager of FUSE said; “Young people, parents and teachers are relying more on smartphones and other digital devices for educational and social purposes. This highlights the need for online safety awareness. Education is a key part of the strategy to tackle online bullying and we are delighted to see the numbers of schools, teachers, students and parents taking part in FUSE increasing year on year.

7 Things Parents Must Do To Keep Their Families Safe Online. #SaferInternetDay #SID2020

Today, parents are bombarded with information on how to protect their families from threats online.
This is actually resulting in a phenomenon termed ‘security fatigue’. People get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of stuff we are told we must do to stay secure, that actually we get paralysed by the complexity of it all. As a result, parents end up having no protection at all.
Luckily, the reality is far more simple. At SimpleCyberLife.com we believe there are several key things to consider when it comes to developing a healthy, happy and safe technology connected family home.
 
1) Set the ground rules: establish a set of ground rules that the whole family can subscribe to can help everyone ‘buy-in’ to the responsible use of technology at home.
 
2) Social media privacy settings – social media is often the way cyber criminals gather important personal information which can then be used to attack us. We should all be reviewing our privacy settings for all social media sites on a regular basis, reviewing historic posts for sensitive information, only accepting friend requests from people you know in real life and remembering NOT to over-share.
 
3)  Maintain an Open & Honest Relationship – easier said than done, but try as a parent to maintain and open and honest relationship with your children and the use of technology in the home.
 
– Parent-as-teacher – start an ongoing dialogue with your children around cyber and the risks it brings. Use some real world examples to bring the risks to life for them. Discuss news stories with them.
 
– Parent-as-confidant – one of the biggest risks children face is the feeling of feeling isolated – this is exactly what sexual predators have techniques to try and engineer. Try and position yourself as the person they can come to when things go wrong online.
 
– Parent-as-expert – it has been shown that kids have a short-sighted view of cyber risks as they interpret risk as a measure of how much something bothers them. Parents need to have an understanding of cyber security risks themselves in order to help their children bridge this gap.
 
– Parent-as-student – reverse the usual roles…ask your kids to teach you! Be inquisitive about the social media they use, how they keep their accounts secure and how they identify suspicious activity or communications. Don’t ask leading questions and be genuine in your questions and supportive in their responses.
 
4) Home wifi setup – our home WiFi is the primary way that we access the internet but it is surprising how insecure some WiFi routers come out of the box. To ensure the security of our WiFi router and help protect all of the family devices that connect to it, ensure you change the default password and set up automatic software updates.
 
5)  Keep phones out of bedrooms – kids can end up squirrelling themselves away in their rooms, becoming more and more isolated as they endlessly scroll social media on their own. The solution? Buy a cheap Family Charging Station that can be placed on a hallway or corridor table. All family members can place their smartphones on charge before they go to their rooms, they are left outside and when they return to them in the morning they are all fully charged and ready to go!
 
6) Secure browsing – our internet browsers are the main portal through which we access the internet and you would be amazed at how insecure some standard browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox are. We need to either ensure we review the security settings of our chosen browser or we are using a secure browser like BRAVE.  
 
7) Family & friends education – educating our loved ones is vital because cyber criminals know that kids can be the weak link and can often be their way ‘in’ to get access to the more sensitive data stored by parents. Education can help combat almost all of the cyber threats out there in some form or another, so the little time it takes to talk about cyber security is time well spent. For example, if everyone in the family knows how to spot a phishing email, this will drastically reduce the number of viruses making their ways onto family devices.  
Of course, each family will have slightly different security needs – which is why to make it even less daunting – SimpleCyberLife.com have a short one-minute quiz for potential members to complete, to help them decipher what their internet safety priorities should be.
It’s important to feel supported in your endeavour to keep your family safe online, and simplecyberlife.com are the world’s first membership network designed to provide accessible resources and expert advice, all in one place. There’s also a community forum where you can pitch questions direct to internet safety experts and fellow parents. Join today – launch offer on now at simplecyberlife.com.