The impact of COVID-19 pandemic has brought to bear a shift in the norms, putting more activities, including education of children, online. This has leapfrogged Nigerian children into the future. Online activities have acquired new meaning and become the reality of Nigerian parents and children. Screen time and screen activities are the new normal. Parents are constantly searching for online learning platforms, TV stations are providing more child-based educational content and schools are teaching via Zoom, Google Classroom and YouTube. Cyberspace, the internet and online activities are here to stay. The future has arrived, welcome!!
Today’s reality is that parents now need to grapple with the daunting and fearful possibility of a child being manipulated or hurt by faceless individuals while surfing the internet.
Parents and Carers must gain the child’s or young person’s confidence by appealing to his or her interests, teach them to think twice before they upload or download anything online.
Educating young children about cyber safety is complicated, as young children often do not understand the social and technical complexities of the internet.
Obviously, the fusion of children and the internet has magnified the critical need for parents and care givers to step up to the new norms of Online Life for Children. Concerns of safety and privacy have been with us from the beginning of time. What has changed however, is the invisible and borderless nature of these concerns and the magnitude of the consequences when they occur. This undoubtedly has brought the urgent need for Online Parenting.
The good news is that the internet remains a world of endless possibilities waiting to be explored by impressionable minds. Undoubtedly, there are many great ways children can use connected devices to learn and play, but there are also risks. With the right tools and strategy, parents and caregivers have the opportunity to support and guide children to avoid online risks and have safer experiences.
In tandem with this trend of thought, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), took into consideration the International Edition of Europol COVID-19 Global Online Safety Advice for Parents and Carers as well as the ITU’s Keeping Children Safe Online, to bring out a document tailored to guide Parents and Carers/Guardians during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keeping children safe online
Parental controls and tools to monitor online time gives room to measure and set time limits on device use or internet access. Parents can also turn off notifications for social media apps to help minimize distractions.
Depending on the child’s age, parents can establish a family tech agreement that balances time spent in front of screens with offline activities.
* If a child is using online platforms or programmes for schoolwork, parents should ensure a healthy balance between non-school related online activities and offline time.
During non-school hours at home, Parents should establish time limits around when and for how long the child can be online.
Parents and Carers are expected to:
* Anticipate risks and adopt appropriate control measures before a child is allowed access to digital devices or the internet. Some of these anticipatory control measures include:
Parental education: As a parent, stay informed and educated about the use of your devices and the devices your child has access to. Stay informed on various social network sites and what happens on them. Stay informed and better educated than your children and wards. Make them understand that you know as much or more than they do. Therefore, be their go-to person for information on what to do with the device you eventually give them access to.
Care Givers should be trained on how to guide children about online activities:
Schools have adopted the use of online platforms for education. Care must be taken to educate the teachers and prepare them for the stream of questions from children, on the use of various online applications or whatever information the children encounter online.
The teachers are major support networks and pillars in the life of any child. They are oftentimes as trusted as parents are.
*There is also the need to instal child appropriate apps/search engines:
Before a device is given to a child, age appropriate applications should first be installed on it. This will protect the child from inadvertently stumbling into wrong sites that appear as pop-ups.
Install firewall: Firewalls act as content filters. They help make sure non-age appropriate content does not appear on the child’s device.
Set timers on all devices used by the child: This helps to create discipline and structure for the child. Ensure clear time boundaries are set.
*. Empower the child: This is one of the most important steps any parent can take. There is a sense of privacy associated with being online. Parents will not always be there when children go online. Adopting a child–centric approach to the use of the internet prepares the child for unforeseen issues and assures the child of the trust and respect of his/her parent.
Children will enjoy the benefits and advantages of the internet when they know how to stay in control and not allow themselves to be victims of the platforms and devices.
- Set ground rules and instructions in collaboration with the child.
- Teach children basic online safety skills and how to apply them.
*. Pay attention/be observant: As children spend more time online, Parents/ Carers should observe behavioural patterns and changes. They should recognize unusual activities, actions and reactions. Where any change is observed, they should calmly address those changes and allow the child sufficient room to talk without being judgmental. The home is a safety net for children. It is also the best support system that allows an abused child recover from abuse and provides a means for managing post abuse trauma. Children need to know they can go to their parents with whatever concerns they encounter online.
Discuss and Engage Children:
Parents should ask how their children use the internet. They should make them show some of their favorite sites and discuss with them, make them aware that there are things on the internet which may upset them and that they can always talk to any trusted adult.
The child should be made to realise that he or she should never give out personal details, such as name, address, school, and telephone numbers, to online friends they do not know in the real world.
Children should be told not to respond to junk emails or open attachments that are from unknown sources.
Parents must pay attention to any change in the way a child uses the internet, such as the amount of time spent online. Also children should be supported to report bullying online, by contacting parents immediately it occurs.
Children should also be encouraged to use nicknames and login names that don’t reveal any personal information about them.
They (children) should be educated on the possibility of people using fake names purposely to cheat, hurt or impersonate others. The use of parental control settings on the browser, search engine and internet security package is also necessary at this stage.
Parents should consider using the filtering software that is available from the internet service provider or from retailers, to block inappropriate material.
* Model good behaviour in the parents’ use of media and digital devices Generally, children will imitate what they see in the influencers around them. Hence, parents and carers must take active steps to ensure that they set the ideal example for online behaviour, that children can follow.
***** Segun Fatuase (seguntuase@gmail.com, 08023092925) with sourced materials from Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).