BY HARNOOR GILL
Grade 11 student
Christ The King Catholic Secondary
Georgetown, Ontario
IT can be hard to realize sometimes at how dangerous the Internet actually is. It contains some mature things that younger children or even teenagers shouldn’t really be exposed to at such an early age. It’s like when you go to the movies and there are restrictions set for certain movies that display things that are intended for older audiences and not the younger ones. These restrictions are not always present on websites unless as a parent you’ve turned on parental controls. To be safe and raise awareness on the ongoing issue of certain sites being intended for different audiences on the Internet, October is designated as Cyber Security Awareness Month.
The Internet is a vast place and full of little fountains of information where people can get lost just scrolling through them or making endless tabs. It would be impossible for just one person to explore every little corner or depth of where someone has gone through the Internet with the new capability of being able to delete what you’ve done on the Internet.
At this point, it might be hard to really figure out how you can advise your children or youth around you to stay away from dangerous sites. But wait, there’s hope! Without telling your kids or youth, place parental controls and turn the option on of not being able to delete history. This will let you know what’s been going on in terms of surfing on the Internet for them.
If there has been something wrong then there are two ways to react to this. It can be curiosity or just simply peer pressure. Youth are always curious at what their friends are doing or what they want to do when they get home. In order to prevent “underage sight-seeing” on the Internet, always ask your child or youth about how their day went or what they did in school. This is a great way to figure out if anything is ever wrong with them. By talking to the youth or child, you are showing interest in what they do in school or among your friends.
Remember, you can’t always protect what your youth is doing on the Internet but you can always advise them what to do. Let’s promote Cyber Security Awareness Month during October and discover things you never knew before.
Please refer to this site as well if you are having difficulty and discover what youth are really doing on the Internet here:
http://mediasmarts.ca/blog/how-young-canadians-get-their-online-media
