People are eager to take advantage of opportunities that technology offers, with little concern about its impact on lives. Gone are the days when access to the Internet was preserves for a few professional groups.
The benefits of the internet are numerous even for child development. According to Paperhacker.com, an online blog, internet usage among modern children under the age of 13 has increased recently, with more than 30 million children visiting online sites annually, making it the largest group dependent on the Internet.
Indeed, children use the Internet to boost their learning by accessing additional information on the different subjects that they are taught in schools, to improve communication skills and foster friendship. Their creativity, according to a PEW Research Centre 2020 report, is also enhanced by the games and learning materials they are exposed to online.Unfortunately, it has its own woes -acknowledged by big producers of the Internet and its facilities.
A Microsoft survey in 2013 revealed that parents give children full Internet access as early as the age of seven. The digital media mogul cautioned the interactions children experience online and through gaming actually condition their interpersonal skills. Parents must consider the appropriateness and responsibility or maturity level of their children, since the disadvantages outnumber the advantages.
The UN identified four types of risks that children may encounter online: risk of content which may be inappropriate, risk of contact which may include individuals with ill intent, risk of conduct, with children picking up negative attitudes learnt online, and risk of Contract with children making unauthorized purchases and signing up for deals.
The UN report said Internet usage has been proven to affect the cognitive development of young children who are not able to separate facts and fiction -given that the Internet publishes content without any filtering, thus making it difficult for children to differentiate between bad and good. It fosters over-dependence, whose consequences include making children abandon traditional face-to-face interactions, thus straining relationships with their families, friends, thus leading to difficult communication even in their schools. Likewise, the Internet is blamed for bad information including highly violent games and programmes, hateful messages, insults and pornographic content which affect children psychologically, resulting in addiction, more aggressive behaviours, bullying of others and other negative vices including becoming robbers.
A survey by the PEW Research Centre in the USA affirms that the widespread adoption of smartphones and the rise of social media have introduced a new wrinkle to the challenges of parenthood, making parenting today harder than it was 20 years ago.
To mitigate these dangers, Microsoft recommends that parents must have a conversation with their children about the risk involved. Microsoft actually compiled a few tips to help start this online safety conversation to engage, educate, enforce and evaluate the best rules for children. These tips include:
Think before clicking – this dissuades kids from clicking on and opening odd contents. Instead, they can be told to first check with the sender or parents who will be better informed.Think before you app – helps kids choose appropriate apps for their age with good reviews and from reputable sources.
Support safer social circles –showing kids how to make social network pages private and cautioning them to think twice before accepting friend requests.
Likewise, children should be encouraged to promote a positive image online, and be respectful when posting comments.
Microsoft provides links on its website, such as Safety & Security Center, as well as Digital Citizenship in Action Toolkit, so as to update parents on additional guidelines to make them and children proactive and involved in online safety.
The UN recommends some practical internet safety precautions by parents to protect their child from inappropriate content, so as to enable the child make the most of online experience. Following are UN guidelines:
Restriction of amount of time children spend in front of screens:
– Creation of a family media plan;
– Use of child-friendly search engines like Kiddle or Kidtopia, or content providers like ABC Kids, CBeebies, YouTube Kids and KIDOZ, or messaging apps like Messenger Kids;
– Review of privacy settings and parental controls to protect children from online dangers.
In Cameroon, the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies, has been sounding warning bells, according to an article published on the website of Cameroon-Info.Net on June 2022.
The Cybersecurity Agency carried out Child Online Protection Campaigns in some primary schools in the Centre Region, stating that knowing online risks and dangers keep away kids from paedophiles, sexual predators, child traffickers, and scammers. ANTIC encourages parents to discuss basic internet security and safety measures with their children, backed up by parental control actions such as spot phishing emails, applying confidentiality settings on social media accounts, and blocking access to illicit or inappropriate content.
