More time inside, mean more time online. Please make sure that your kids are safe!
COVID-19: Increases online grooming
As a result of the novel coronavirus, school closures and cancellations of extracurricular activities are leading children and teens to spend more time online for academic and recreational purposes, and can be more susceptible to cyber predators.
Kids are a lot more isolated than they normally are, which makes them more vulnerable. These predators have more time on their hands because most likely they don’t have a job to go to either at this point, so there is a lot more contact being made on the internet.
We urge parents to monitor who their children are talking to online and make sure they are educated on being safe while they spend time on the internet. Parents can take simple, proactive steps to monitor their child’s online presence and keep them safe.
To protect children from cyber predators, parents should:
Ask your child who they are communicating with online, and encourage them to only communicate with friends they know. Children often do not view their online “friends” as strangers, so it is important to have a conversation with your child about appropriate ways to communicate online with their friends.
Use parental controls on your child’s devices so that they cannot access certain websites and content.
Know the passwords to your child’s online accounts, including email and social media.
Ask your child to identify a trusted adult who they can communicate with about online concerns.
Most importantly, TALK to your child about the subject. Knowledge is preventive!
How they find them
Online predators engage children using the same slang and commenting on the same trends that the children are likely to be interested in. By building rapport, the child will become attached to the online personality and will often try to hide an inappropriate relationship from their parents for fear of losing what seems like a good friendship. The goal of the predator is to eventually meet up while widening an already expanding divide between a teenager and parents. By understanding how predators find teens and how they attempt to draw them in, parents can be on the lookout for suspicious behavior and become alerted before anything gets out of hand.
How they try to draw them in
Online predators take advantage of youngsters in an emotionally unstable period of their lives. Teens desire encouragement from others and look to outside sources to feel important, valuable, attractive, smart or mature. Online predators attempt to gain the trust of vulnerable kids and teens in order to set them up to be taken advantage of. Predators will educate themselves in the hobbies and topics of interest for their mark so that they can appear to be a valuable social asset for the teen to keep around. The predator will try to become a person that the teen can go to to share secrets or seek advice away from the parents, creating a rift in the family structure and support system. Once a predator gains knowledge of certain secrets, they can then use those secrets as blackmail to manipulate the teen to do as they say.
What to do
If an online predator contacts your child, report the incident immediately to local law enforcement. Do not delete messages, photos, or other types of digital content from the predator, and do not attempt to make contact.