Chatrooms, the Internet and more online safety issues revealed.

In July 2016 Police in Scotland carried out a 6 week investigation into the prevalence of online abuse and grooming. Operation “Latisse” uncovered an appalling catalogue of abusive behaviour directly aimed at children. 523 victims have been identified and over 392 charges have been laid against perpetrators and over 30 million abusive images have been recovered.

This just highlights the ongoing concerns about where our children” hang out ” on the internet. Previous on line safety advice was targeted at the distinction between the digital world and the real world, this is now no longer valid as both worlds have now merged and the so called digital divide is no longer present. Children now communicate over the internet via social media platforms on a daily basis, and in some cases on an hourly basis!

The growth of mobile phone technology and sales has exacerbated the problem with many children and young people now accessing the internet whilst “mobile” laptops in bedrooms have been replaced by smart phones and tablets, access to WiFi is not restricted to the home environment.

Digital technology is a fast moving industry and it seems that many parents are slow in catching up with the latest developments or new social media platforms. In order to help our children protect themselves and we must help them to protect themselves we need to be able to understand the new social media platforms that our children are accessing i.e. snapchat, Ask fm, whatsapp, facebook, twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, omegle, chat roulette, kik, yik yak, vine, tinder, whisper.

How many of you out there have heard of all of these chatrooms and social media platforms? how many are your children currently using and would you be able to understand how they work and the potential dangers that they present? Jordan Simmonds our NWG Network assistant recently posted a blog article regarding snapchat from a parents perspective, the article was very well received with over 2600 downloads in a very short space of time.

The final message that we want to convey is for parents to talk to their children about the dangers that lurk out there on the internet especially during the summer holiday period where children have more time on their hands and boredom looming. We do not want to overly scare our children and make them worry too much but a healthy awareness of the risks and dangers that they can be exposed to is essential for them to be able to keep themselves safe. Stranger danger was a topic that I was taught about at school and in the new reality of the digital world that our children live in, with the increasing numbers of online friends that they have never met but communicate with on a daily basis keeping aware of their online habits is essentially good parenting.

Kevin Murphy

Education and Community Development Officer

NWG Network