Have you talked to your kids about who they can and can’t talk to online? If not, now is the time to start. When kids are under the age of 17, you should keep an ongoing conversation about “online strangers.”

Chinese Grandmother And Grandson Sitting At Desk Using Laptop At Home

Kids and young adults may not know that predators often pose as “friendly,” and same age people. A 30-something male could, potentially, pretend to be a 15-year-old girl without anyone being the wiser. This doesn’t become a problem until the impostor uses the identity for malicious purposes. It’s essential to work with kids to teach “triggers for concern” and what to do if and when they experience one. I don’t advocate for teaching kids to be fearful of people they meet online, but young kids should limit online interactions to those people they know in real life. Even then, “triggers for concern” may be applicable.

When one or more of these triggers happen with an online stranger or even someone they know in real life, they should immediately tell a parent or trusted adult:

  1. Asks for personal information, like a home address or social security number
  2. Wants your child’s photo
  3. Uses sexually explicit language
  4. Tries to schedule an in-person meet up for the two of them
  5. Attempts to scare, frighten or threaten

If any of these triggers happen, then do one or more of the following:

  1. Remove, block and/or report the interaction to the social network or app used.
  2. Save a screenshot or otherwise document the interaction, should any legal action need to be taken in the future.
  3. Talk to parents of other kids who may have been part of or mentioned in the conversation.
  4. Re-evaluate whether or not that is a place your child should be spending time online.

This article was originally posted on FAVES + CO and is reprinted here with permission.

Posted on 10/28/2013

Evans screenshot resizedWritten by Sarah Evans

Sarah Evans (@PRsarahevans) is a social correspondent at Sevans Strategy and chief evangelist for social collaboration platform Tracky. You can follow Sarah (@sarahevans) on Instagram and check out her new website, FAVES + CO.

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