Happy World Children’s Day: Tips to Protect Your Child’s Safety Online

7 min readNov 20, 2022

Cyberbullying and online harassment has affected almost 37% of the children worldwide. As we move towards a fully digitized world, it’s important to ensure a safe online environment for children.

Your Child’s Safety Online

Online safety has become a major concern. Cyberbullying and online harassment has affected almost 37% of the children worldwide today. As children spend more time on the Internet, it is indispensable that we educate ourselves on the importance of child safety online and ways to prevent cyberbullying.

So, how can your kids use the internet safely?

Children and adolescents, even more than adults, engage extensively in online activities such as surfing, streaming, gaming, and even shopping.

Adults would know the risks of using the Internet. And so, they don’t venture into the dark alleys of the Internet that’s accessible only to a very few. However, that’s not the case with children. Often, due to their inquisitive nature, children tend to open pathways that are not meant to be opened. For example, to the dark web. This challenge is daunting now that the pandemic has increased the time children spend online.

From age 5 to 13, children believe whatever they see, hear, or whoever they meet. Studies have shown that children acquire the capacity to make informed decisions only between the ages of 9 and 12.

Thus, whenever your child visits a site online, they are more likely to believe what they see. The children of today can be touted as the “Internet Generation.” Because, they live and breathe on the Internet. Their exposure to the digital world at a very young age has both its pros and cons.

With the creation of Metaverse, real-time global communication and immersive interaction between strangers is expected to increase. So will the time that your child spends online.

So, what are the issues that the children and parents of today face and how do we overcome them? Let’s take a look.

What Are the Challenges?

Children are moving into the digital world at an unprecedented rate. Every half second, a child connects to the internet for the very first time, a report by the United Nations Regional Information Center states.

There are four important challenges that a kid will face on the internet. They are,

Screentime: With the onset of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, we began spending more time online to work and stay connected with our friends and family.

This change has also affected children who spent time learning and connecting with their friends online. The AACAP states that 90% of American children between the ages 13 and 17 have used social media and 75% have at least 1 active social media account. In 2022, even with relaxed lockdowns, research shows that children worldwide spend 2–3 hours per day online.

2. Your child’s digital footprint & persona: You leave a digital footprint whenever you visit a website or an app. This is the same with your child.

To ad companies that thrive on personal data, your child’s data is just as important as yours.

To prevent ads on platforms like YouTube, ensure that your child uses the kids version of the app.

3. Cyberbullying: This is the most threatening thing on the Internet right now.

Statistics show that the U.S., India, and Brazil are the three countries where cyberbullying happens the most.

A 2021 report by the Cyberbullying Research Center shows that 45.5% of kids in the U.S. have experienced cyberbullying in their lifetime.

4. Online scammers & harmful people: Kids trust everyone. Scammers take advantage of this trait and entice them to share their personal information.

Scammers may try to extort photos, home addresses, the child’s school details, information about his/her/their family member and even passwords.

For example, they may send a message that claims to offer free Roblox items and gift cards. A phishing link may be attached to this message.

People with malintent go a step further and may try to reach out to your child from beyond the display screens of their monitor and mobile phones.

5. Malicious software: Kids may download games through referral links or cracked versions that host harmful viruses. The malicious software then begins to track and monitor their activity.

What are the other threats?

Exposure to harmful content such as violence, self-harm, and nudity
Exposure or access to substance & narcotics
Online bullies, trolls, and malicious actors
Incomplete, misleading or inaccurate information
Ads that target children (E.g. Online games)

How Do We Protect a Child’s Safety Online?

It becomes more difficult to monitor a child’s online activity as they grow older. They may always have a smartphone with them. They most likely prefer and require privacy.

This is perfectly natural as they grow more independent of their parents.

If you’re a parent, open dialogue may help. Try to discuss online safety with your child.

Discuss the risks of communicating with random people on the Internet and alert them not to readily trust everyone they meet online.
Explain that passwords should not be shared with anyone, even if they are someone really close to them (boyfriends/girlfriends). Let them know why it is important to set boundaries.
Discuss their online identity and ask if it makes them feel empowered or exposed. Online identities, just like real world identities, can be misused or misrepresented. Here’s an example of an online identity that is secured by cryptography and cannot be recreated or used twice.
Explain what will happen if they visit inappropriate websites, links, or click on alluring pop-up ads. A friendly guide will always be more helpful than strong criticism.

How long is adequate?

Kids spend time on the internet using various devices. Almost every kid between the ages of 8 and 11 has their own smartphone. The survey was taken by UNICEF-Global kids online.

They claim that children received their smartphones at a very young age. Some younger than 8 years old.

Between 11 and 13: 23.78%
Between 8 and 10: 23.68%
Between 14 and 16: 13.89%
Younger than 8 years old: 13.29%
After 16 years old 8.79%

Smartphones can be used as tools that protect and deter safety depending on the applications that children use.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) advises that kids between the ages of 2–5 should be limited to less than 60 minutes of screentime on a weekday and 180 minutes on a weekend.

Kids older than 6 years of age may be encouraged to limit their screen time and be educated about safe surfing.

Tips to Safe Online Surfing

Children usually spend more time on social media than on other activities. They get more friends and interact with strangers on a daily basis. The engagement they receive on these social platforms is sometimes more important than ones in the real world.

Kids love attention. They try to imitate stunts and many daring tasks that they see online. Some examples of these are,

The slap my teacher challenge
The NyQuill chicken or sleepy chicken challenge
The face wax challenge
The skullbreaker challenge
The penny challenge
The dry scoop challenge

*Please don’t try these challenges at home or anywhere else.

If you notice your child being exposed to or engaging in such activities, educate them on the ill effects of these trends.

On the other hand, if they are being bullied or forced to participate in such activities, converse with them and reassure them that you can help.

If you’re a distraught parent worried about your child’s online safety, then these tips can help:

Spend time online with your children to teach them proper internet usage.
Never agree to let them meet anyone they met online, without your permission or supervision.
Ask them to never reply to threatening emails, messages, posts, or texts.
Always take your child’s report of an unsettling online platform seriously.
Locate the computers or laptops in a public area where anyone can see what your child is doing. Always instruct them not to access personal or private information from a publicly used system.
Regulate your child’s screen time on smartphones or tablets.

If you’re a child or an adolescent, then

Never post or exchange personal information, such as your address, phone number, school name, or location publicly on the Internet.
Use only a fictitious name, and never share your password with anyone.

Now, Online Safety Is Under One Roof

To safeguard your child’s privacy from scammers and malicious actors online, use the BChat Web3 Messenger. Any information that you share with your child and vice versa remains private.

On BChat, the BChat ID is used as an identifier instead of personal information like an email address or password.

This negates the risk of their phone number or email address being exposed online.

Since no data is collected, your child can converse without the fear of being impersonated by others.

The BChat privacy messenger only requires a working Internet connection to access in case of an emergency.

Private Conversations: Things stay between the two of you, parent and child. No third parties, centralized actors, or advertisers.
Peer to Peer Calls: Private calls stay private. No interference, wiretapping, surveillance, or eavesdropping.
Goodbye, Strangers: Spammers cannot contact you, unless you share your BChat ID with them.
Moderated Social Groups: On social groups, you cannot directly message someone without knowing their BChat ID. Social groups are also moderated to control spam.
Closed to DMs: Even the most tenacious of spammers will only end up in the ‘message requests’ tab. All new conversations end up there. You can choose to accept them or block them with a single flick of a button.