Protecting Children from Oversharing: How to Protect Children's Privacy and Safety Online and Teach Them How to Use Social Networks Correctly
The Internet and social networks have become an integral part of our lives - it is already hard to imagine everyday life without chat rooms, news, videos, music, shopping, and other services available online. Children can find many interesting and useful things on the Web. But it is up to adults to teach them how to use the Internet safely and to protect them from problems that may arise from lack of knowledge or from being overly trusting.
The word “oversharing” means a person's desire to share too much personal information, and not just about themselves. The Internet offers a huge number of platforms where you can express yourself: social networks, forums, blogs, video hosting, etc., as well as complete freedom of self-expression. The ease with which you can share information is often so exciting that people forget that being too open a person can be dangerous. And children and teens may not realize this until they are faced with bullying or scammers.
Why Do Children and Teenagers Tend to Share So Much About Themselves?
Firstly, it is a desire to be liked and to attract attention, to make themselves known and to demonstrate their openness. This is a natural part of a child's personality development and self-determination, but it can also be caused by psychological or family problems.
Secondly, the trend of oversharing is set by popular bloggers. Their life in a reality show format, with subscribers constantly being informed about what they do, think, where they go and how they look, gives children and young people the feeling that this is the way to behave, and they easily adopt this experience.
Moreover, the general availability of means for self-realization and the new generation’s high skills in technology also have an impact - now even small children can record videos and post them online.
Why Is This Dangerous?
Publicly available phone numbers, names of places visited and exact addresses (schools, flats, summer houses), as well as mentions of friends and relatives can end up with stalking, kidnapping or robbery.
Stories about expensive gifts, new gadgets, photos of the home and any display of items that indicate wealth may lead to fraud and robbery.
Emotional comments on social networks or blogs may provoke psychological attacks - bullying, grooming, blackmail, abusive behaviour, stalking, or lead to criminal or administrative charges.
Therefore, parents should regularly and honestly talk to their children about probable consequences of being too open online. And at the same time discussing some basic cybersecurity rules added with real-life examples can help your child understand the best ways to behave and deal with problems online.
How Can You Help Your Child Stay Safe?
Privacy Settings. It's important to talk about social media profiles and any other public accounts privacy settings. For example, that it is better to hide phone numbers, names of school or class, and home address. VKontakte's privacy settings, for example, allow you to create a flexible digital space: you can make it so that all users can send friend requests, but only friends can see the most important information. However, the safest way to protect your child's profile is to lock it from all but friends, and restrict access to photos, personal information and the friends list. This will help protect the account as well as the child’s friends and family from scammers and stalkers.
Personal. Explain to your child the principle of building personal boundaries online. For example, not to add everyone as a friend, not to write to strangers, not to share too much information about yourself and your family. It is also worth talking about the rules of respecting other people's privacy - not all friends, acquaintances and relatives may like to be mentioned or tagged in a photo or post. It's best to ask their permission before doing so.
Personal Data. Children should be given a clear explanation of what personal data is and why accidentally making it public is a big risk.
Personal data includes:
- Full name,
- Place and date of birth,
- Telephone number and email address,
- Birth certificate or passport details,
- Address of residence (region, city, street, house, apartment),
- Information on parents' education and place of work, and
- Income level (of parents).
Remind them that under no circumstances should they give out their bank card numbers or passport details to anyone - neither their own, nor their parents’, nor anyone else’s. Especially if the request comes from a friend in a messenger. Scammers may be hiding under the guise of teachers, acquaintances or friends.
Critical Thinking. Even a basic explanation of what it is and how to use it will help a child realize that not everything written in blogs or sent via messengers should be trusted. It is important for parents to teach their children to question and openly discuss things that worry or concern them. For example, if a suspicious message has been sent on behalf of a friend, relative, or teacher, you should not hesitate to call him or her to find out if it is true or to tell your parents. And even more so if the message is from a stranger.
Internet Behavior. Explain to your child that it is not a good idea to seek recognition and sympathy from subscribers, talking frankly about his or her thoughts or pouring out one’s soul to strangers. The child should know that people on the Internet may easily lose their temper and be cruel, and if they start writing unpleasant comments or use abusive language, the child should not fall for provocation and take it to heart.
If a child has been bullied, harassed or sent suspicious content by unknown people, it is worth protecting him or her from these messages - stop communication immediately and block the user forever. For example, you can blacklist any suspicious person on VKontakte. This feature is available in the profile settings: "More" → "Block". Thus, the user will not be able either to send friend requests or private messages, or to see posts or photos of the profile. In addition, you can complain about any person who behaves strangely or wants to harm you. You can report it to the VKontakte moderation team using the "Complaint" button.