Mapping dangerous trends among children in cyber space

Children would want to meet strangers, indulge in cyberbullying, hack into accounts

The internet seems to be increasingly eliminating the fear and inhibition of meeting and interacting with strangers. According to a recent survey, 44 per cent of children aged between eight and 16 years want to meet or have met in person somebody they first met online. This proclivity among children, in fact, finds reflection in another finding of the survey — 48 per cent of the parents polled consider their children interacting with strangers online the greatest security concern.

A simple solution to this might be discussing the risks of social media with children. The survey reveals, even as 91 per cent of parents claim to have had a discussion, interacting with strangers has not been among the primary topics. The major issues that most parents discussed were cyber criminals and identity theft (71 per cent), privacy settings (62 per cent), cyberbullying (57 per cent), online reputation (53 per cent) and/or popularity among friends (52 per cent). Only 17 per cent of the parents surveyed sought to find out if their children were interacting with strangers online. 
 

Interacting with new people is an important aspect of character growth and, so, is often encouraged among children, both in the virtual and real social sphere. However, with cyberspace increasingly becoming prone to malcontent, cybercrimes and cyber bullying, it is important that parents’ concerns about their children meeting strangers should be translated into remedial action. 

Trust factor 

The survey provides an insight into how trust functions in bolstering remedial procedures. Nearly 90 per cent of parents indicate they would monitor their children’s online activities across devices if they could. However this is counteractive to the fact that 64 per cent children tend to hide their online activity from their parents, indicating a knowledge gap even in the most informed scenarios.

Nearly 56 per cent children claimed they would change their online behaviour when they knew their parents were watching, while 43 per cent said they used pseudonyms or remained anonymous in their social media profiles.

Infringing privacy 

In what might indicate another dangerous trend, the survey revealed 27 per cent children knew other people’s passwords and 61 per cent of them had accessed others’ accounts without telling them. Among the major reasons cited were checking if the account holder was talking to an ‘ex’ (64 per cent), browsing private photos (49 per cent) or trying to dig up dirt on owners of the accounts (42 per cent). 

Cyberbullying 

Such trends revealed in the survey also amount ultimately to cyberbullying. Of the total children polled, 43 per cent claimed to have witnessed cruel behaviour on social networks, while 52 per cent admitted active participation. Of them, 2 7 per cent made fun of others, 24 per cent called others someone fat or ugly or made fun of their physical appearances, and 23 per cent tagged mean pictures. The reasons for cyberbullying, according to the survey, mainly are revenge (49per cent) or simple dislike (28 per cent).