Kaspersky Lab shares tips on cyberbullying prevention
New Delhi, India, June 21, 2014: To mark Stop Cyberbullying Day 2014, Kaspersky Lab has launched a checklist of top tips for keeping your children safe from cyberbullying.
Today (20 June 2014) is Stop Cyberbullying Day (http://www.cybersmile.org/stop-cyberbullying-day), Cyberbullying is the use of cell phones, instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to harass threaten or intimidate someone. Cyberbullying is often done by children out of anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. In today’s technology it has become very easier than ever before for bullies to attack the vulnerable. The culture of widespread over-sharing on social networks that has become the norm in society today has unwittingly thrown fuel on the fire.
It’s important that we talk to our children about cyberbullying. If you’re a parent of a child who is on the receiving end, remind them that they’re not alone. It’s a problem faced by lots of other children; and is one that some of their idols have suffered too – Miley Cyrus, Cheryl Cole, Demi Lovato, Kim Kardashian and many others have all spoken out about their experiences.
Commenting on this day, Altaf Halde, Managing Director, Kaspersky Lab -South Asia, said, “On the Internet, you can find information about almost anything. However, when it comes to your children’s online activities, you need to make sure they’re protected against contact with undesirable people, inappropriate or harmful content and malicious software or attacks. Children can be just as vulnerable online as they are in the real world. So it’s important that you do whatever you can to reduce the chances of your kids being exposed to any risks.”
If you’re a parent, our checklist of top tips for keeping your children safe might be useful.
1. Talk to your children about the potential dangers that they may face online.
2. Encourage them to talk to you about their online experience and, in particular, anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. Protecting children from cyberbullies is especially challenging with smartphones, as they can be targeted in so many ways, especially out of view of their parents. Deal with cyberbullying as you would deal with bulllying in real life: encourage children to be open and talk to a trusted adult if they receive any threatening or inappropriate messages. Numbers and contacts on apps can both be blocked if they are making children uncomfortable or unhappy.
3. Set clear ground-rules about what they can and can’t do online and explain why you have put them in place. You should review these as your child gets older.
4. Use parental control software to establish the framework for what’s acceptable – how much time (and when) they can spend online, what content should be blocked, what types of activity should be blocked (chat rooms, forums, and so on). Parental control filters can be configured for different computer profiles, allowing you to customize the filters for different children.
5. Don’t forget to make use of settings provided by your ISP, device manufacturer and mobile phone network provider. For example most phones allow you to prevent in-app purchases, so you can avoid them running up hefty bills when they play games.
6. Install a rigorous anti-malware product that’s capable of defending the device against malicious programs and hackers. Many Internet security software products combine antivirus capabilities and advanced Parental Control features that make it easier to protect your children when they’re online.
7. Don’t forget about your children’s smartphones – these are sophisticated computers, not just phones. Most smartphones come with parental controls and security software providers may offer apps to filter out inappropriate content, senders of nuisance SMS messages, etc.
8. Make use of the wealth of great advice available on the Internet – including CEOP’s thinkuknow (http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/) website.
