Back to school: key cybersecurity recommendations for mothers, fathers and children

The way of studying changed.

If decades ago students used an encyclopedia by volumes to do their homework, today they "google", write keywords on YouTube, follow a

or

or, with the latest news, they "ask" the ChatGPT about school content.

Peer-to-peer concerns about an assignment can be discussed in chat by playing Play or another online game.

"Virtuality" does not live in a "world apart", but is directly related to the off-screen activities carried out by children and adolescents.

For this reason, several experts prefer to talk about the creation of an entire digital identity and not one or another profile on a platform.

But, just as it is a world of advantages, the web and applications also abound with dangers and threats.

Looking ahead to a new school year, how can mothers, fathers and responsible adults stay alert to cyberbullying or "grooming"?

And what signals to give to children so that they are digital citizens aware of the benefits and dangers of cyberspace?

The way of studying has changed, corroborating what material they consult and who they follow is essential to ensure a safe digital environment.

(Photo: illustration Shutterstock)

First of all, it is essential to distinguish between cyberbullying -or "cyberbullying"- and "grooming".

Cyberbullying or "cyberbullying" is a problem that occurs between peers and contemplates the grievances and ridicule that a child can be subjected to by another child.

In other words, bullying is also transferred to the digital environment.

In "grooming", on the other hand, a person of legal age, or "groomer", gains the trust of a minor through any technological platform with the aim of abusing the victim and/or generating child sexual exploitation material. .

The perpetrator can impersonate someone her age or use a fictitious profile for it.

Once he has the trust of his victim, he proposes taking the interaction to a private messaging service such as WhatsApp, Instagram or Snapchat.

There he generates the content and abuses his victims.

Many times, the sex offender tries to extort them so as not to be reported.

In Argentina,

since 2013 and contemplates sentences of up to four years in prison.

Law 26,904 establishes penalties of between 6 months and 4 years for the crime of "grooming" (Photo: illustration Shutterstock)

“On average, in the country, a boy accesses his first mobile device at the age of 9.

We are the Latin American country where children are emancipated digitally first, at this age,"

the lawyer and director of the

.

Navarro clarified that, within the

of the "groomers", there may be variations: "If before the sex offender was interested in making that meeting happen, seeing each other in a square, abusing the victim; now we have also seen that they seek to sexually abuse without contact of a minor.

(CSAM for its acronym in English of

), that child sexual exploitation material." 

The NGO recently launched the GAPP application in which guidance information is provided to the user and a complaint can be made directly.

The director of the NGO insisted that "screens are not toys" and warned that "the biased look that the adult world has often does not reflect on the enormous responsibility that comes with giving a 9-year-old a device."

According to the latest report published by Grooming Argentina in 2022,

.

In the words of its director, this is "one of the most revealing indicators of the study", who encouraged not to demonize technological tools but to start developing

for all family members.

Precautions and warning signs in a case of "grooming"

According to the NGO report, 1 in 3 children and adolescents in Argentina are unaware of the crime of "grooming" or virtual sexual harassment (Photo: illustration Shutterstock)

According to the lawyer, one of the first precautionary measures is to be able to maintain frank and constant communication with children and adolescents about what they experience online.

“There is one question that should prevail at the family table:

, that's a question we want to ask in the same way that we ask them how they did in school or in a sport, ”he said.

Navarro maintained that the best method of parental control is precisely to maintain a dialogue and be able to establish rules and hours of use of the devices.

"There is a question that should prevail at the family table: 'how was it today on the Internet?'", said the director of the NGO Grooming Argentina (Photo: illustration Shutterstock)

In addition, he suggested that the following recommendations and precautions be implemented at the family level:

•  Build an agreed policy on the use of devices at home and respect it.

•  Set limits

  and not trust that children can self-regulate their activity and screen time.

  For example: set a rule about what to do with devices at night.

•  Teach kids to

  stay alert

  when an unknown user seeks to start a conversation with them, just as they would if the meeting were in person.

  (“6 out of 10 children and adolescents speak to someone unknown” according to the report, a figure that remains the same with respect to the last measurement of the report corresponding to the 2020/2021 period).

•  Do not share photos or videos of any kind with strangers or "internet friends".

  Also inform if friends, acquaintances or relatives ask them or send images in which they appear without clothes.

Likewise, Navarro points out two types of

: the presence of general indicators and specific indicators.

The generals can be representative of any situation of violation of the rights of the boys, not exclusively of "grooming", such as a drop in school performance, inexplicable fluctuations in moods, changes in body language or explosions of anger .

The constant concealment of mobile phones can be a warning sign in the face of a possible case of "grooming" (Photo: illustration Shutterstock)

The specific indicators of a possible case of

are:

•  The constant concealment of mobile devices by boys.

• The permanent insistence on always wanting to connect and be available all day.

•  Want to be connected until late at night.

General cybersecurity recommendations for the whole family

Adults should be the first to protect the privacy of children and wonder what they share on technology platforms (Photo: Illustration Shutterstock)

Faced with an online culture in which teasing and offensive speech are the order of the day, the problem of cyberbullying must also be addressed.

Many times the first step must be taken by adults, since practices such as "sharenting" create a "digital footprint" on children before they have an identity for themselves.

A survey organized by the Microsoft News Initiative in 25 countries in 2019 found that 42% of adolescents said they had a problem with posts about them made by their parents on social networks.

Pablo Lima

, sales manager of VU, a company specialized in cybersecurity, explains to

: “To begin with, we ourselves –as adults- have to be more careful with what we publish on our social networks.

When we publish a photo or video of our child, we are exposing their privacy without thinking about the impact that all that personal information will have in the future.”

"Digital detox" and hours of device-free family fun are also important (Photo: Illustration Shutterstock)

Lima indicates several security guidelines when browsing the net:

• Talk to the kids about the importance of

  not sharing their personal data

  (real name, place of residence, age, school or college, schedules, extracurricular activities).

• Know and

  understand how the applications, games and sites you browse

  and participate in work.

  It is preferable to take a minute, accompany them in the navigation and take advantage of those moments in a playful way as a teaching and learning.

• Pay attention to

  what type of information they request

  and what features the platform has (chat, images, voice and/or video communication).

• Accompany the boys when they create their profiles and share chats, games or browsing to find out how they do it and

  understand who they interact with

  .

Lima warned: "It is important that adults review the data protection policies and 

so that they can activate it on the devices and adjust the privacy settings of the applications and platforms that children use. they use”.

In general, the parental control options -free or paid through

allow you to regulate the time of use of different devices, activate search filters or set navigation blocks, a function that disables the connection to the web, but not the access to the device.

Devices usually have a parental control option.

Different sessions for children and adults can also be done on shared devices.

(Photo: illustration Shutterstock)

Lima highlighted that: “

, because if you don't use it at home, you will do so elsewhere.

Communication and being able to generate bonds of trust is fundamental”.

For his part, Navarro emphasized that, in addition to using these control configurations, the greatest responsibility should not be delegated to them, since some measures could be circumvented by the adolescents themselves.

"The key is to educate ourselves digitally as adults and to build an ecosystem and an agreed family policy on the use of all devices."

Line 137 or "Accompaniment Line for victims of family and/or sexual violence and grooming" and WhatsApp 11 3133-1000 provide free and personal telephone assistance 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

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