In recent years, there have been a number of reports illustrating parents’ concerns surrounding how their children should grow up with technology.
In 2016, the US-based Erickson Institute released a study involving 1,000 parents where 72% of them cited excessive screen time, inappropriate content, lack of sleep and spending less time outdoors as some of the downsides of exposing children to technology. Then in 2018, BBC cited a survey by security company Norton on 7,000 parents in Europe where 43% said they were concerned that children could be developing poor sleeping habits due to their gadget usage.
The same survey also revealed that 38% expressed fears about what devices like tablets and phones could do to their social skills while 32% cited concerns on mental health.
Parents can alleviate their fears or concerns about technology by learning how to be tech-savvy themselves. Here are some easy ways to start.
Set parental controls
According to the 2018 Internet Users Survey by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) involving 4,160 respondents, while 62.4% of parents are aware of parental controls, only 12.2% said that they have activated the feature on their children’s devices.
MCMC stated in a report that “the take-up for parental control services was still low”, in fact it was lower than 2017 when the take-up was measured at 17.2% (the 2017 Internet Users Survey involved 3,469 respondents).
Parents who do not set up parental controls explained in the MCMC report that they adopted measures such as staying close to their children when they are online. However, parental controls measures can help children avoid inappropriate content when the parents are not watching.
For example, on search engine Google, parents can click on Settings > SafeSearch to turn on a filter that will block inappropriate or offensive results. Then click Save at the bottom of the page to activate the settings.
Meanwhile, YouTube on mobile lets users turn on Restricted Mode which helps to hide videos intended for mature audiences. Click on Account on the right side of the screen then Settings > General > Activate Restricted Mode.
For YouTube on desktop, click on the profile picture on the right and a drop down menu will appear – Restricted Mode is at the bottom. Click to activate Restricted Mode for the browser. Alternatively, parents can also download YouTube Kids for content that caters more to younger viewers.
Video streaming applications such as Dimsum Entertainment let users create Kids Mode profiles for younger viewers. On the Android mobile app, click on the three bars in the top left hand corner to access Menu, then click on the profile photo to access the Primary Profile page, then on the bottom of window, click on Edit Profiles. On the Edit Profiles page, click New User, then tick Enable Kids Mode, and save.
To set a four-digit PIN that will prevent the kid from switching back to Main mode, login to Dimsum Entertainment on a web browser. Under Profiles, click on My Account, then select Settings. Scroll down to Other Settings and click on Reset Kids Mode PIN, key in a four-digit PIN and save.
Netflix users can also login to their accounts on a web browser to access parental controls settings. On the Netflix profile picture, click Account. Then scroll to Profile & Parental Controls. Choose a profile, then select Viewing Restrictions to set a maturity level. Users can also key in specific titles to block regardless of maturity rating.
Popular online video games such as Fortnite also have parental controls which can be accessed on platforms such as PlayStation 4 and iOS. In Lobby, open Menu on the upper right of the screen and select Parental Controls. Available Parental Control features include Filter Mature Language, which when enabled filters out certain words in text chat and replaces them with heart symbols, according to the Fortnite guide on Parental Controls.
Do you know who your kids are talking to online?
In April, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (Unicef) released a statement on its concerns over children spending more time online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It stated that as schools close and more children spend an increasing amount of time online for education or socialising, they could become vulnerable to online risks such as sexual exploitation and grooming, as well as cyberbullying.
“The coronavirus pandemic has led to an unprecedented rise in screen time,” said Global Partnership to End Violence executive director Dr Howard Taylor.
“School closures and strict containment measures mean more and more families are relying on technology and digital solutions to keep children learning, entertained and connected to the outside world, but not all children have the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to keep themselves safe online.”
The statement comes with a technical note reminding all relevant parties such as governments, schools and parents to work together to provide a safe and positive online experience for children. Some of the measures that it urges parents to consider include empowering children with the right information about online safety such as letting them know how and when to get help.
“Parents and caregivers should also ensure their children’s devices have the latest software updates and antivirus programs and ensure that privacy settings are set to ‘high’,” the note stated.
CyberSafe Malaysia, an initiative by CyberSecurity Malaysia to increase online safety awareness, has a guide advising parents on how to protect kids from online predators. It reminded parents not to allow young children to use chat room functions on gaming platforms or social features on certain sites that they visit as “the dangers are too great”.
If parents were to allow their children to join chat rooms, then CyberSafe Malaysia reminded them to monitor the conversation and to never allow the child to leave a public chat room to join another user for a private conversation in a separate window or chat.
It also said that if possible, the computer should be placed in a common area in the house and never in the child’s bedroom.
“It is much more difficult for a predator to establish a relationship with your child if the computer screen is easily visible,” it added.
The guide also reminded parents not to blame the child if they do encounter an online predator.
“The offender always bears full responsibility. Take decisive action to stop your child from any further contact with this person.”
In another guide for online safety, CyberSafe Malaysia said parents should remind children not to share personal information such as their phone number, home address and school name online.
Reporting danger
For parents whose children have encountered unwanted incidents on the Internet such as harassment, they can visit the Malaysia Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCert) website to file a report through its Cyber999 Help Centre.
Users can lodge their reports via an online form (along with relevant data such as screenshots of related incidents), email or SMS. They can also call the MyCert hotline at 1300 88 2999.
Users can also visit the MCMC Complaint Portal to file a report about harassment. Click on New Complaint, then choose Complaint Type and Type of Service, for example ‘Social Networking’. Next, users can select the relevant social media platform under Category, and subsequently under Subcategory specify the type of harassment – whether it has to do with cyberbullying, extortion, hate speech, or others.
When users click on ‘cyberbullying’, a pop-up will appear to remind them to screencap the incident and then report it to the platform. Students making a complaint are also reminded to report it to parents or teachers. If the harassment is severe, they are urged to make a police report.
“MCMC will acknowledge receipt of your complaint with reference number within three days of receiving the complaint (verification of complaints through MCMC Consumer Complaints Bureau portal will be done in one day). You will receive answers pertaining to the result of MCMC’s investigation within 15 days from the date of complaint received,” the regulatory body stated in an FAQ.
Users can go back to the portal to track the progress of their report.
Platforms like YouTube have a Safety and Abuse Reporting page for issues such as harassment and cyberbullying. Users can also report another person for harassing them on the site or for revealing their personal information.
Explore coding with kids
In 2019, Unicef said parents should avoid putting a “blanket restriction” on children’s Internet use as they could be missing out on learning how to develop some crucial skills for later in life.
The statement accompanied a report by Global Kids Online called Growing Up In A Connected World which compares data on Internet use on nearly 15,000 children in 11 countries such as the Philippines, South Africa, Brazil and Italy.
The Unicef report’s research suggested that children who socialise actively on the Internet are “better at managing online privacy”, said Sonia Livingstone, professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics and co-author of the report.
Although parents often worry about children wasting too much time on online entertainment, the report stated that according to data, some activities such as online gaming may be “useful entry-level opportunities for the youngest children”.
Parents can also help children develop new skills like coding by making use of websites such as Code.Org, which provides free coding activities featuring characters from popular franchises like Star Wars and Frozen. Parents who are so inclined can also invest in age-appropriate robot toys to introduce kids to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts, as well as teach them coding and robotics for kids.
Meanwhile, streaming services like Dimsum Entertainment have educational content geared towards primary and secondary school students covering topics such as mathematics, learning to write in Mandarin and mind mapping techniques.
Go offline for a little while
By now we all know that too much time spent staring at screens could lead to eye strain, neck aches and even headaches, and that’s true for both kids and adults.
To prevent this, Medical News Today recommends the 20-20-20 rule, which states that a person should spend 20 seconds staring at an object 20 feet away for every 20 minutes spent looking at a screen. The 20-20-20 rule bears repeating as it was designed to prevent eye strains such as headaches and blurred vision caused by looking at a screen for too long, especially for kids who can get engrossed for hours in games like Fortnite.
Another way to prompt kids to take a break from their devices is to use digital reminders. For example, the YouTube Kids app has a Timer feature where parents can set a timer of up to 60 minutes. When the time is up, kids will no longer be able to continue watching on the app until a parent disables the lock screen with a PIN number. On the app, click on the Lock symbol on the bottom right, key in a four-digit passcode and select Timer.
On the YouTube app, click on Profile > Settings > General for the Remind Me To Take A Break Feature which will prompt the user every hour, or Remind Me When It’s Bedtime to set a reminder for when it’s time to get off YouTube and go to sleep.
What to do when on a break from devices? Parents can suggest offline activities to do with kids such as playing board games or cooking together. Website Education.com has a guide filled with suggested hands-on activities like an adverb acting game, post-it Bingo and more. It also has a listing for printable worksheets like connect-the dots and word search.
Ultimately however, parents who do their best to connect with their children and keep the lines of communication open would fare better at equipping their children to deal with the challenges of the digital world, according to Unicef.
“Instead of worrying about how long children spend online, Global Kids Online research suggests that parents should engage positively with their children’s digital world and discuss with them the specific content and contact risks they may encounter, so that children can gain resilience and thrive,” said Livingstone.
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