Is your child a victim of a cyber-crime
Is your child a victim of a cyber-crime
With advancement of technologies, cybercrime practitioners have received a mighty weapon against children. And it is the duty of every parent to learn if their child is a victim of cybercrime or cyberbullying.
This article will help you understand what cybercrime is and what parents can do.
What Is Cyber Crime?
Cyber crime is an ever-increasing malicious practice that harasses, threatens, extorts money, breaches data, leaks confidential information, and much more.
Sometimes cybercrime or cyberbullying against your child is easy to spot - he/she may show you a message that is mean, explicit or simply blackmailing him/her. However, other acts can include impersonating your child or posting his/her personal information without consent such as photos or videos that hurt or embarrass him/her.
Cyberbullying sometimes happens out of sheer accident. For instance, vague language of the text messages, IMs, and/or emails may mean that the person is not committing a cybercrime. However, the same pattern over & over can rarely be caused by accident.
Did you know? Only a small percentage of children report cybercrime or cyberbullying against them even to their parents. This makes it crucial for their parents to do something about it. But what? One of the ways is to install a spy phone app that can help the parents to protect their children from potential cyberbullying.
What Can Parents Do?
The online world opens a door of unlimited resources for your child’s growth but it comes with many risks too. And protecting your children may seem like a challenging task. But here are some ways you, as parents, can protect your child from cyberbullying:
Console your children: Calm your child down and let him/her know that they're victims and should not self-blame. Praise him/her for showing the courage by talking about it, remind him/her that you’re with them, and lastly assure them that you’ll figure out a way to make it better.
Inform the school: It’d be a good idea to inform someone at the school (principal, nurse, counselor or your child’s favorite teacher) about the particular situation. Some schools have rules to deal with these kinds of situations. But remember to keep your child in the loop before talking to the school to make him/her feel comfortable.
Counsel your child: Let your child know that it’s not a good idea to respond anything to the cyberbully but keep all the threatening messages, photos, and similar things.
Block the bully: Almost every device offers a feature to block someone specific to stop receiving calls, texts, emails, or IMs.
Learn more about your kid’s online world: Again, keep your child informed about it. You can follow your child or friend him on child on social media with his/her consent. And remember not to comment or post anything to their profile as it may annoy them & create trust issues with you. You can also install a phone spy app to keep track of any cybercrime issues against your child.