Social networking and safety

Safer Internet Surfing For KIDS, ADULTS.

Social networking sites are taking the internet by storm, largely because of their popularity with kids and teens.  However, they are also attracting “groomers” who pretend to be kids in order to stalk young people and abuse them.

What exactly are social networking sites?

It’s a rather long name but it means sites which allow people to put up information about themselves such as interests, favourite music, photo galleries and diaries.  People make friends by adding new contacts to their list of friends, giving them access to personal information and then chatting via instant message or email.  Some sites even allow users to chat via webcam.

Popular social networking sites include MySpace, Bebo, Faceparty, Friendster, Orkut and MSN Spaces.

What are the dangers?

Making a fool of yourself.
If people put up pictures of themselves, or write personal diaries then they need to remember that, apart from their friends, there are other people who may use this information in a nasty way.

Child abusers making friends with kids.

If youngsters put lots of information about themselves on the Internet this gives “groomers” lots of ways of making friends with them (pretending to be kids themselves) and contacting them.  If they put their school name and where they hang out then it’s easier to do this.

Bullying.

If a bully gets hold of a kid’s private pictures or diary then they can use this to be cruel and send round to others with unpleasant messages and so on.

Keeping you and your kids safe:

Don’t let young kids use social networking sites.
Many sites say you should be over 14 or even 16.  Most parental control programs block these sites.

Don’t add unknown people to your friends list.

Only add people who are your “real” friends (not people you meet on the Internet) to your friends list or provide access to your area.

Don’t meet up with people you meet on the Internet.

If kids must do it, make sure an adult comes along, at least for the first time.

Remember that people aren’t always who they say they are.
The worst is that they may be child abusers “grooming” and so pretending to be kids in order to meet up, or they may be people who are bullies wanting to be unkind or even criminals who want to defraud you.  If people are unpleasant you should be able to block them from contacting you.

Don’t put your personal information on your site.

Don’t put your address, mobile number, school name and things like where you hang out - people may use this against you.

Tell people what you are doing.

Kids should tell their parents about what is going on and who they are chatting with. Likewise, parents should be open so that kids feel comfortable talking about what goes on, so they have someone to turn to who won’t over-react.

Report abuse.

Find out how you can report bad behaviour on the site you are using or if it’s more serious to the authorities.  Kids should talk to an adult they trust about bullying.

Child abuse
The Child Safety and Online Protection Centre handle all child related reports.  If you are in the UK then this is the best place to make reports.  If it’s international (for example on a US website) then you should go to the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT). The VGT is a partnership of international law enforcement agencies, working together to make the Internet a safer place.  The VGT aims to identify, locate and help children at risk, to hold perpetrators appropriately to account, and help prevent child abuse around the world.

Internet Watch Foundation
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) works with Internet Service Providers, Police and Government to try to reduce the availability of illegal Internet content, particularly child abuse images.  If you wish report the content of a particular site to the IWF, you can do so on their website at iwf.org.uk

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