As coronavirus causes lockdown across the globe, there is enough room for online child abusers to take advantage of the pandemic and explore their awful acts. The perpetrator of this act maybe someone unknown to the victim or someone they know. And this abuse can happen through any device- laptops, tablets, or smartphones.
Colleges and schools are already closed down and most parents are also working from home. Thus there is a high chance of more children using the internet for a longer period of time without any close supervision. Moreover, children become more vulnerable due to isolation and have more online exposure to different apps and sites.
Not to forget that there is a shortage of personnel known as moderators which help in regulating contents that are being displayed online. With the coronavirus outbreak, your children are likely at the mercy of online abusers. Therefore, it is important for the parent to be more watchful on their children in this lockdown as the pandemic gives chances for the abuser to carry out their deeds.
Know about the risks regarding online child abuse during this lockdown and what can be done.
1. Closely supervise your children
While schools are under lockdown, children might feel isolated and might turn to the internet for entertainment. It is important for parents to take closer supervision on the kinds of apps and site their kids are using and the types of people they are interacting with on those sites.
If your kids are on chat forums, online boards and many more, there is a high chance that online pedophiles are also on these forums. While some of these sites are of great value, some can be dangerous to the children leading them into a path of child abuse because of lack of parental supervision. Hence, parents need to be more watchful and always be on guard.
2. Spend quality time with your kids
As children spend more time online while most of the parents work from home, it is more essential for parents to be having frequent conversations with their children about what they are doing online. Most importantly who they are talking to and what they discuss. Moreover, be a parent that your kids can trust and be approachable. When this happens, kids will not be scared to turn to you in case of worries or when they need clarification about things.
3. Go through their computer
As parents, going through your children’s computer for proper supervision on every activity going on has become indispensable. However, you need to approach these with extra care as children may be more distant and secretive if parents are too harsh on them. You can also put limits on things they can do to protect children from online child abuse.
4. Advice your children
As children grow and get more exposure to the internet world, parents need to guide them on how to use the internet. They need to acknowledge the risk of talking to strangers and the point is if they can’t just walk up to a stranger and start having a conversation with them in the real world, they shouldn’t do it online- “just because you are talking to them via screen doesn’t give you protection against them.” In fact, in the wake of coronavirus, the internet world has seen an increase in the search for child abuse materials. This is to say kids are more exposed to risk with the apparent distance.
5. Ask them questions
Children are often advised by their friends to be more private when it comes to using computers. Therefore it is important for parents to frequently ask their children random questions on the use of their computer without raising any suspicious look or attention. This gives you more insight into what is going on.
It’s a high time from all you parents to be more alert and supervise your children closely yet in a more friendly manner.