Internet and Social Media Safety

General internet safety

Here are some basic family internet rules that could help keep you and the rest of your family safe on the internet and social media.

• Have a family agreement about internet use. This can include hours of use, which sites can be accessed and more.
• Place your computer in a central, open area, like the living room so internet use can be supervised.
• Keep mobile devices and computers out of bedrooms and bathrooms.
• Create a central charging station for overnight charging of devices.

These tips can help create a safe and supervised environment for your family to use the web safely.

Family internet safety

The following are some guidelines and rules you should have with your children when accessing the internet.

• Talk to your children regularly about dangers of the internet. Things like scams, cyber bullying, sextortion and more.
• Guide your children away from public chat rooms, games and applications that allow for random messaging from strangers.
• Make sure your child understands what is appropriate for them to use and send over the internet and make sure they know what to watch out for as well.

If your children use the internet frequently then remember to

• Look at the sites your child visits and their browsing history.
• Look into a software or online service that filters out suggestive material.
• Consider installing a child safe search engine.
• Create a special folder of bookmarks for your child's favorites on your computers browser.
• Use the parental restrictions built into your devices.

Even some of these basic things can protect your children from harm when on the internet or social media. Making sure your children tell you when strangers start contacting them for any reason as well. This can solve problems before they begin.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place through the internet or social media. Cyberbullying works just like in person bullying does in the way that it is repetitive and consistent. Here are some ways for you to educate your child on the dangers of Cyberbullying and how to respond to Cyberbullying.

• Make sure your child knows that it is okay not to like someone but it is not okay to bully someone.
• Teach your child the golden rule of if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing at all.
• Teach your kids to be good digital citizens. This means they should report any bullying they witness.
• Teach them to recognize the different forms of bullying. This can look like a post directed at someone in a negative way, a story, a comment and more.
• Make sure your child knows how and where to report these issues both on the platform and in person if this issue is affecting someone's life.
• Encourage your child to use the block feature found on social media sites. This is an extremely helpful feature that can be used when you are being harassed or bullied by somebody online.

As a parent or guardian, you need to know what to look for in your child's behavior in case they are a victim of Cyberbullying.

Common signs of Cyberbullying include but are not limited to:

• Has poor eating or sleeping habits.
• Has declining grades or issues in school.
• Shows signs of low self-esteem including fear or depression.
• Avoids conversations about internet use.
• Withdraws from family and friends or avoids school and social events.
• Avoids any use of the internet or their device.
• Seems stressed or worried when they receive a notification on their device.

If your child is showing more than one of these signs then you may want to talk with your child about Cyberbullying or look into their internet world. These symptoms can also come from bullying in school. Sometimes it can be a combination of both Cyber and normal bullying.

Sexting and sextortion

Sexting is when 2 or more people exchange sexually explicit messages, pictures and/or videos. This can be done through regular text messages or through social media apps such as Snapchat, WhatsApp and more. Sexting is done for a variety of reasons. It may be done to try to be intimate with a partner, impress someone or to be funny. Other times it can be due to pressure or threats from a partner which is what we call sextortion.

Sextortion can happen to anyone. If you are being sextorted then you should do the following.

• Do not send any more messages, photos or money.
• Stop communicating with this person in any way immediately.
• Report the incident to police.
• Keep a copy of all the conversations.
• Block the person from contacting you in any way.

If you have information about online sextortion of a child or if you come across illegal material online, report it to the Cybertip.ca Report Form anonymously.

The WPS Assault, Abuse and Victim Services page offers more help and information about services for victims.

Check out the Canadian Centre for Child Protection website for more information on sextortion.