Which of the following explains why some argue that children should not be on Facebook before they are high school age?

Teenagers use digital technologies for everyday activities like keeping in touch with friends on social media, relaxing and doing schoolwork. They also go online to look for support for physical or mental health problems, and sometimes to experiment with different ways of expressing themselves.

Because they’re online so much without your supervision, teenagers need to be able to identify acceptable and unacceptable online content independently. They also need to know how to behave respectfully online and avoid online risks.

Internet safety risks for teenagers

There are four main kinds of internet risks for teenagers.

Content risks
For teenagers, these risks include coming across material that they might find upsetting, disgusting or otherwise uncomfortable, especially if they encounter it accidentally. This material might include:

pornography or sexually explicit content in music videos, movies or online games
real or simulated violence
hate sites
terrorist sites
fake news that seems believable
harmful user-generated content like sites about drug use, self-harm, suicide or negative body image.

Contact risks
These risks include coming into contact with adults posing as children online, strangers who persuade teenagers to meet them in real life, and online scammers.

Conduct risks
Conduct risks include behaving in inappropriate or hurtful ways, or being the victim of this kind of behaviour. Examples include:

cyberbullying
sexting
misusing people’s passwords and impersonating people online
making unauthorised purchases using other people’s financial details
creating content that reveals information about other people
having trouble regulating online time, which can develop into problem internet use.

Contract risks
Contract risks include teenagers signing up to unfair contracts, terms or conditions that they aren’t aware of or don’t fully understand. As a result, teenagers might:

be open to identity theft or fraud
get inappropriate digital marketing messages or scam emails
have their personal data collected from apps and devices like fitness trackers.

Protecting teenagers from internet safety risks

Your child is probably an independent internet user now, but you can help your child keep building the skills and knowledge they need to identify and manage internet safety risks.

Here are some basic things you can do to protect your child from internet safety risks:

Create a family media plan. It’s best to negotiate your plan with your child. Your plan could cover things like screen-free areas in your house and what online behaviour is OK.
Talk with your child about upsetting and inappropriate content. If you can talk with your child in an open and non-judgmental way, they’re more likely to talk with you if they come across something disturbing online or have a bad online experience.
Stay in touch with what your child is doing online and how much time they’re spending online. This will help you to spot when your child might be having problems.
Ask your child to ‘friend’ you on social media. Younger teenagers might be OK with this, but older teenagers might prefer not to friend you.
Encourage and remind your child to explore and use the internet safely. For example, it’s OK to remind your child to check privacy settings.
Find out how to make complaints about offensive or illegal online content.

Technical internet safety tools like internet filters can actually increase risk for children over 14 years. If children are using filters at this age, they might not be developing the skills they need to avoid disturbing content. They might take risks either accidentally or on purpose when they use the internet in unfiltered environments.

Identifying and managing internet safety risks with teenagers

It’s important to help your teenage child manage internet safety risks. This lets your child build digital resilience, which is the ability to respond positively and deal with risks they come across online.

You can do this by:

being a role model for healthy internet use
talking with your child about online content and behaviour
reminding your child about privacy and personal information
teaching your child about online purchases.

It’s all about trusting your child to become a responsible digital citizen.

Being a role model for internet use

All children – including teenagers – do as you do, so being a role model for your child is a powerful and positive way to guide your child’s behaviour when it comes to internet use.

You can be a role model for safe and healthy screen use by using digital media and the internet in the way you want your child to use it. For example, you might keep internet-connected devices out of bedrooms, avoid using your phone during mealtimes, or balance screen use with other social and recreational options.

It’s also good to model positive technology use like phoning friends and family and sending supportive messages.

Talking about online content

Talking openly about your own digital media and internet use and encouraging your child to do the same will help your child feel they can talk to you if they have a bad experience online.

You can get your child talking by asking them to explain the apps, games and content they’re interested in. You might say, ‘Snapchat posts disappear quickly, but a screenshot can capture what’s been said. Is that right?’ Or ‘Talk me through the differences between YouTube and TikTok’.

It’s good to encourage your child to develop a sense of what they like and don’t like online and to defend their choices with friends. For example, you could say, ‘It’s great that you chose not to get involved in that online argument’.

Talking about online hoaxes and fake news with your child will help them develop the ability to tell whether a website has good-quality information. You and your child can find out how to recognise, avoid and report scams on Scamwatch, a website run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). You can also use the ABC’s Fact Check to check the accuracy of claims by politicians, public figures, advocacy groups and institutions.

This is all part of digital and media literacy.

Taking care with privacy, personal information and personal safety

You can help your child look at and choose appropriate privacy, location and safety settings on devices, programs and social media, and talk about why this is important. For example, you might say, ‘Employers often do online searches to find out about job applicants. Make sure that anything you make public online is OK for future employers to see’.

It’s also important for your child to be careful about sharing personal information. Remind your child not to give out their name, address, date of birth or other identifying information to people they don’t know in person and not to send or post images to people they don’t know.

And it’s a good idea to update ‘stranger danger’ advice with your child as they move towards adulthood and come into contact with online dating. For example, you might say, ‘There’s always a risk if you go to meet someone you only know online. It can lead to dangerous situations. For example, the person might want to hurt you’.

You might find that your child knows more than you do about privacy settings and data collection on YouTube, streaming services, gaming platforms and fitness devices. You can make the most of this by asking your child to share what they know and then working together to adjust the settings on all your devices, services and apps.

Making online purchases

If your child is starting to shop online, it’s important for them to use reputable shopping sites, check customer reviews, and look into the transaction and security software the site uses.

You could talk with your child about shopping online, and explain the risks associated with online transactions. For example, you might say, ‘Have you done a web search and checked the online ratings to make sure it’s a reputable site? You can also message or email the company before making a purchase. I can help you do that’.

Find out what the potential dangers are and how to deal with them to make sure your child can enjoy using social media, online gaming and the internet safely.

To help keep children and young people safe as they spend more time online during the COVID-19 outbreak the ‘Safer Schools’ app is now available in Northern Ireland.

The app has safeguarding information, advice and guidance. It also explains safety settings, privacy settings and reporting/blocking functions for social media, apps, games and other platforms.

Parents and carers can access advice and information on social media platforms popular with their children and their friends. School staff will have access to a range of resources as well as up-to-date safeguarding information,

You can find out more and download the app on either the App Store or Google Play at the Safer Schools NI website.

Social media (like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram) are online ‘communities’ of internet users with similar interests.

Members of the community create an online ‘profile’ which gives other users with varying amounts of personal information.

Once users have joined the network, they can communicate with each other and share things like music, photos and films.

The sites are a fun way for your child to stay connected with their friends, family and peers.

The dangers

Social media networking sites are seen as being very ‘cool’ by children and they may be pressured by their friends into joining them.

The sites don’t actually present any threats that don’t already exist elsewhere online. The danger is that the threats exist in a new online environment you or your child may not be familiar with.

As with most potential online dangers, the problems can start if your child doesn’t look after their personal information properly. The risks you need to be aware of are:

cyberbullying (bullying using digital technology)
invasion of privacy
identity theft
your child seeing offensive images and messages
the presence of strangers who may be there to ‘groom’ other members

Cyberbullying: keep your child safe online

Registering and choosing safe settings

If your child's about to join a social media networking site, there are things you can do to improve their security before they even start using it.

Setting technical parental controls

You can use parental settings on the computer to make sure your child’s personal information is only seen by people they want to share it with or to control your child's gaming.

This could be to block your child from playing certain games that may have inappropriate content or from playing online unsupervised.

You can check the equipment's user manual or the manufacturer's website to see what controls you have access to.

You can also contact your internet service provider (ISP) or mobile phone operator to find out about any child safety measures they offer.

However, be aware that some sites are totally open to the public.

Safety tools

Learn about and make sure your child knows about the safety tools available to them on the service they're using.

This might include a block function to stop unwanted contact or the choice of pre-approving comments posted onto their profile before they are made public.

Profile/ screen name

Although your child may be able to limit who has access to their profile, their profile/screen name shouldn't include their real name.

The following guidelines will help make sure your child is safe while they are members of social media:

make sure that they don’t publish personal information like their location, email address, phone number or date of birth
make sure your child is very careful about what images and messages they post, even among trusted friends – once they are online they can be shared widely and are extremely difficult to get removed
encourage them to talk to you if they come across anything they find offensive or upsetting
keep a record of anything abusive or offensive they’ve received and report any trouble to the site management - most sites have a simple reporting process, normally activated by clicking on a link on the page
make sure they're aware that publishing or sharing anything which would mean breaking a copyright agreement is illegal
if your child makes an online friend and wants to meet up with them in real life, you should go along with them to check the person is who they say they are
tell them to be aware of online scams – offers which seem too good to be true usually are
encourage them not to get into any online discussions about sex as these tend to attract potentially dangerous users
if you suspect someone may be grooming your child on a social networking site, or your child is being stalked or harassed, you should contact the police or Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)

Staying safe online
CEOP website

How children chat online

It's also helpful to learn how your child communicates online. Children often use shortened versions of words or acronyms of phrases - for example 'LOL' for ‘laughing out loud’.

It’s very common for people to do this when using message boards and social networking sites. You can find out what any of these acronyms mean by searching for them online.

Acceptable internet use

Some examples of acceptable use might include:

the internet-connected computer must be in a family room with the screen facing outward so you can see what's going on
if your child accidentally goes to an unsuitable website they should tell you - you can remove it from the 'history' folder and add the address to the parental control filter list
it's never OK to use abusive or threatening language in any online communication
your child should take breaks from the computer every 30 minutes for health and safety reasons
your child shouldn't download unknown files from the internet without you agreeing - it’s best to never download unknown files at all

Child-friendly search engines

You should make sure your child is aware of child-friendly search engines. These filter out inappropriate internet sites so that they are able to search the internet safely.

Your child can also use traditional search engines with safe search settings turned on.

Child-friendly search engines

Online gaming

Video gaming on computers and games consoles can be educational and sometimes benefit your child physically. As technology has improved and popularity has increased, a number of different types of game and playing styles have become available.

The competition in the market, and the ever-increasing demands of gamers, have meant that games have developed added depth and detail, and are made more personal.

To give yourself the best chance of helping your child stay safe, find out about all the different types of game children play online.

Gaming: what's appropriate for your child?

Age and content ratings for games

Many games are for adults and may have themes, language and images that are inappropriate for your child. It is important that you make sure the games they are playing are suitable for them.

All video games sold in the UK must have age ratings clearly marked on the front and back of their boxes. The age ratings are chosen using the Pan-European Games Information (PEGI) system.

PEGI classifications and labels must be on products unsuitable for children under 12 .

PEGI 12, 16 and 18-rated products must only be sold to those of the right age.

It is illegal for a retailer to sell a video game with a PEGI age rating of 12, 16 or 18 to someone below that age.

Also, where necessary, games are asked to show icons on their boxes to give an idea of the content. These icons include drugs, violence, bad language and themes of a sexual nature.

Guide to age ratings and icons

Chatting and communicating with other players

While playing online, players can communicate with each other by:

sending messages which can be typed as part of the game
chatting online while playing the game
physically speaking using headsets/microphones

Although many gaming environments and communities are moderated, some of the communication taking place may be unmonitored. This can place your child at risk of cyberbullying or contact from potentially dangerous strangers.

Cyberbullying: keep your child safe on computers and mobile phones

Tips for staying safe while playing online

You can help keep your child safe by following these tips:

chat to them about their gaming and ask who they are in contact with
research games before deciding whether they are right for your child – consumer opinion forums are widely available online, along with publications and websites dedicated to reviewing games
familiarise yourself with the games to check they’re suitable – you can do this by playing them yourself or by watching your child playing them
get them to use a screen name that doesn’t include any clues about their real name
advise them to never give out personal information such as their email address, phone number or location
encourage them to tell you if they are being bullied or if there are any users they feel uncomfortable about - many games have the facility to ‘block’ other players
report any threatening or suspicious behaviour to the game’s administrators or to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP)

As with all online environments, if your child makes a friend online and wants to meet them you should always go along with them.