5 REASONS WHY TEENS SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM THE INTERNET

What! Stay away from the Internet? How do you expect them to find solutions to their assignments and school projects? Remember these teens are between the age of 13 – 19 years. Some children’s education is so early that at the age of 17, some of them are already in Universities, Colleges, and Technical Schools.

Hear me out. Teens cannot really stay away from the Internet but how about monitoring their usage and giving them cybersecurity awareness tips. So, let’s rephrase it this way, 5 REASONS WHY TEENS’ INTERNET USAGE SHOULD BE MONITORED WITH CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS TIPS IN MIND.

According to a research in 2016 Cyberbullying Data by Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin, shows that on a weekly basis, 65% of teens were on Instagram, 30.4% were in chat rooms, 30.1% were on video chats, 41.4% were on YouTube, 58.3% on Snapchat and 96.5% on their cell phone. These statistics obviously points to the fact that teens are always on their device, whether cell phone or laptops. The Internet, including the Internet of the future (the Metaverse) can harm teens in so many ways. There is a need for proactive action to safeguard future generations.

1. Access to uncensored content: The Internet and its contents have depth, and exploring the Internet takes a user deep into the filth online. We have videos and clips on the web that make the use of hard drugs a normal thing. These adult contents preach that violence is really the way and therefore it’s normal to be violent. The effect of this is that your teen begins to act up, is easily triggered, and becomes morally decadent.
   
   
2. Cyber-bullying: For teens who are really exposed to cyberspace, it is either of two things: they are bullying others or they are being bullied. According to 2019 Cyberbullying Data by Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin, “15% of the students in the sample admitted to bullying others and 37% admitted to being bullied”. Bullying in the form of mean comments, and threatening text messages are what teens experience when their online activities are not monitored. Effect: suicide, depression, low self-esteem (Sierra Crosby, 2018 pages 9-14).
   
   
3. Online Scams: Naive teens who are online without supervision are susceptible to being victims of Internet scams. According to research by  State of Internet Scams 2021 – People Search – Socialcatfish.com, the scam victim percentage for under 20 individuals increased by 156%. Still, according to this research, out of 726 responses, 152 were scammed on Facebook. Here is where it gets worse, these kids do not have an account for themselves, so the parent’s/guardian’s credit/debit card is what they use and then the parents have to bear the brunt of the whole ordeal by cybercriminals. Knock-offs, fake scholarship offers, make money fast schemes are some of the online scam teen experience (Online Scams Targeting Teens and Young Adults).
   
   
4. Crime: As a result of being exposed to uncensored content and meeting shady friends online, teens have been found to take part in criminal activities. There are teens who have been recruited as drug peddlers online (BBC Three investigation finds kids dealing drugs on social media) and became drug abusers too. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the estimated juvenile arrest for 2019 was 696,620, all below the age of 18.
   
   
5. Addiction: Addiction to social media, online games, and chat rooms are real. Teens who become addicted usually lack productivity in school, and of course, addiction comes with depression and depression comes hand in hand with suicidal thoughts according to Association between online social networking and depression in high school students: behavioral physiology viewpoint.

50% of teens feel they are addicted to their mobile devices. 59% of parents feel their teens are addicted to their mobile devices – Dealing with Devices: The Parent-Teen Dynamic | Common Sense Media.

Phew! That is a whole bunch of disheartening content, what exactly is the way forward?

WAY FORWARD

• Create a Gmail account for your child under 13 or applicable age in your country:  You can log the Gmail account on the teen’s tablet or computer and manage the account using Family Link. This will limit your child to teen’s content across google products and search engines and give you a great level of visibility.
  
  
• Look through your teen’s phone: Abomination? No! Not at all. This is you, understanding that your teens are precious and should be protected, if not totally, then to some extent.
  
  
• Set boundaries: This includes time limits too. Define what they can and cannot do online.
  
  
• Expose them to Cybersecurity awareness tips: At what point does content become classified as cyberbullying, or sexual harassment? How do you know you are being scammed? What should you do to prevent addiction? These are questions cybersecurity awareness tips will address with your teens. Teach them, educate them, and make them cyber aware.
  
  
• Be cyber aware: If you need to help them, then you need to understand what exactly is going on too. Be on the known, it is always better to be safe than sorry.
  
  
• Build trust with your teens. They need to trust you to share details with them. And in the process of monitoring their online usage, converse with them about what you find, this is also a way of building trust.

The next generation must be secured at all costs necessary.

Meet Our Research Analyst:

Ruth Fatayo is a Research Analyst at Presence Secure. She is a 400L Cyber Security student at the Federal University of Technology, Akure. Connect with Ruth via LinkedIn.  Email: [email protected]