At just 18 years old, Jessica was an extremely popular girl in school. She was also loving and caring. In 2014 during the Easter holiday, she texted her parents, Michael and Jane, informing them that she was going for a run in the property next to theirs. That was the last time they ever heard from her.
When she was found, she had already committed suicide. A look through her laptop and ipad revealed that she was yet another victim of cyber bullying. There were 87 messages between her and her bullies; them telling her how useless she was while she pleaded with them to stop. According to the father, there were no signs that anything was wrong in the days leading to her death.
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How safe are they? Image source:pixabay.com |
This case is not isolated; phishing, identity theft, cyber bullying and scamming are just but a few of the security issues facing young internet users today. And with most kids owning high-end devices today, things are not looking good. Things have changed greatly in the recent years. Free-range parenting, for instance, is a thing of the past. Parents have their children on a very tight leash and know where they are at all times. The fact that you can tell where your child is at all times each day every day does not mean that they are entirely out of the woods. There is a breed of law-breakers known as online predators hiding behind a laptop preying after unsuspecting internet users and kids happen to be the easiest targets.
As parents, it is our responsibility to ensure our kid’s safety at all times. The task we are faced with is teaching the kids how to be safe even as they sit across from us in the living room. Showing them that the screen is just an illusion; they are as exposed to the world as they would be on the street and should therefore conduct themselves online as they would offline.
If you have met a teenager, you already know that they normally do what they are told not to do. You might pour all the right information into their head using a funnel but they’ll still make mistakes. This is where monitoring comes in. You should be very concerned if you realize that they constantly delete their browsing history. This ultimately indicates that they are up to no good.
Softwares such as the
Familoop – parental control provide parents with an overview of their kids’ online activities; their interests, friends and intents. This helps to identify and deal with digital threats such as cyber bullying and online predators before things can get out of hand.
This inventive product that is to be launched this September also comes with a child locator to allow the parent to monitor where the child is/has been. It also ensures that inappropriate search results and websites are blocked from their gadgets through the Familoop-website blocker function.
Though you cannot put a price on the protection of your kids, the early birds can opt-in now at a 60% discount. Put the control of your child’s safety back into your hands.
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