Working with parents to keep kids safe online
The landscape, tools and quick stats
Parents do their best to set rules to keep their kids safe when crossing the street, wanting them to be want safe drivers on the road someday. Like using floaties in the shallow end, parents want to equip their children to jump off the high dive.
Same goes for keeping kids safe in today’s internet age. There is value in helping kids safely crawl and walk before they run with the open internet.
This real-life example helps you understand how a child is convinced to send ‘nude’ pictures used for blackmail. This is a real-life example of how someone gets forced into sex trafficking. And here’s a guide if you want to talk with your child about pornography.
Many in this field teach that the first, best and most complete line of defense is an open line of communication with your child. If they know they can come to you when they first mess up, you can cut off the bad actors in this space before they wreak havoc.
Parents are working to figure out how to protect their children from “accidentally seeing sexual content; from getting scammed, stalked or bullied; or from simply spending too much time in front of a screen.” So, here’s a quick guide to see the landscape, understand it deeply, and do your best to control it.
The landscape:
PHASE 1: Keep your young kiddos from accidentally stumbling across pornography (freespoke.com)
PHASE 2: Protect your online adolescents from being targeted by ‘friendly’ seeming folks chatting with them in their games and other apps, where blackmail is increasing at an alarming rate (pinwheel)
PHASE 3: Help them be informed about the world they are now operating in online
PHASE 4: Monitor their online behavior to help them navigate and learn the safe boundaries
PHASE 5: Send them out into the world educated and equipped to succeed, with an open door in case they find themselves in trouble
The Tools:
Phase 1. The Freespoke search engine is the only full search engine committed to not showing pornography. Make it the default search engine on all your devices. And it’s Free.
Desktop: this link in Firefox // this link in Chrome or Brave and others
Then sign-up for premium to support the effort!
Canopy: you can add on Canopy’s unique approach for enhanced adult content filtering using code SAFEKIDS20 for a 20% discount at canopy.us
Phase 1-4. Pinwheel: you can set your kids up with phones that help them walk before they run, use code FREESPOKE for a 10% discount on a pinwheel phone
Other Tools and Tips to consider:
Net Nanny: https://www.netnanny.com/
Covenant Eyes: https://www.covenanteyes.com/how-it-works
Cyberwise: http://www.cyberwise.org/
iParent: https://www.iparent101.com/
TeenSafe: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teensafe-parental-control/id1066075344?mt=8
Turn off explicit lyrics in iTunes: https://www.lifewire.com/apple-music-parental-controls-how-to-block-explicit-songs-4796574
Lock kids out of inappropriate content on YouTube: https://www.fatherly.com/gear/how-to-set-up-the-parental-controls-on-youtube
Turn off Geotracking: https://www.howtogeek.com/713152/how-to-turn-off-gps-location-tracking-on-an-iphone/
Internet router with strict filters: https://protectyoungeyes.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-routers/
Some Resources and Stats:
Most kids are exposed to pornography by the age of 13, with some as young as 7:
A national survey showed 84.4% of male and 57% of female U.S. youth (ages 14 to 18) were exposed to pornography. Fight the New Drug
More than 1 in 5 sex trafficking victims—an estimated 21%—are children International Labour Organization (2017)
Of the domestic minor trafficking victims who had been forced into porn production, this report cites the average age they began being filmed was 12.8 years old Bouché, V. (2018)
In one study, data aggregated from 400 million web sesarches revealed that the most popular term related to sexual searches was “youth.” One of the most searched terms on popular porn site Pornhub is “teen.” This term has remained in the top ten for six years.
Traffickers force girls into pornography for psychological control and for a greater financial gain:
“Over the past five years, the world pornography revenue was $97 billion annually. Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography. The only reason these numbers aren’t higher is because so much porn is available for free! Every second 28,258 internet users are viewing porn.” (2011 report)
If you’re looking for more on the scientifically-backed pitfalls of pornography, here are two helpful resources:
