Children actions –
parents’ responsibility
There was a debate lately, all over
the media, about parental responsibility for children’s actions in the Internet.
All of this, after court decision in Georgia, which decided that parents of cyberbully
will face a libel trial. But first comes first. All of it started, when a 7th
grader created a fake facebook account of a girl from their class. He edited
her photo, to make her look obese, then he was writing posts, which suggested
that girl is homosexual, racist and promiscuous. After a victim find out about
her fake profile, she told her parents about it. They at once informed
principal about this case of cyberbullying. Boy was suspended for two days in
school and grounded by his parents for a week. Despite the punishment, boy didn’t
delete the profile. It worked 11 more months, and was deactivated by facebook,
due to girl’s parents’ requests. Then they decided to sue boy’s parents,
because they found them responsible for letting boy harm their daughter. Trial
court, as well as appeals court decided that boy’s parents will face trial,
which might create new standards about parents’ responsibility. But to
understand this, we have to know what are the risks of the internet being used
by children in the wrong way.
Threats in internet
Bullying is big problem at almost
every school. Unfortunately, due to development of technology, it evolved into
something even more dangerous, which was described in previous pharagraph –
Cyberbullying. In the opposition to its
offline form, bullying in the internet can happen all the time. It is not only
in school, but also after school and on the weekends. Social media, email,
chats - all of them give opportunity to share rumors, shameful photos, fake
photos and lies about somebody. As in example it is sometimes hard to enforce
kids to stop bullying, but parents should be more and more aware, because they
are responsible for their kids actions, no matter if those happen in reality or
in the internet.
It is not only what kids do on the
internet, that parents should be aware. It is also what kids will watch and
read. There is a lot of content which is inappropriate for both younger kids
and teenagers. Pornography is available just in one click. A lot of violent
videos are uploaded every minute. Even if your child is not interested by such
subjects, his classmates might be and they will share it, send it, or whatever
it takes, to prove they are “cool” and adult, because of watching it.
Is there a solution?
It is not the parents’
responsibility, but children safety, which is the most important. Letting your
kid to communicate in the Internet without any limitations, may lead to serious
problems during their mental development. Unfortunately, keeping your children
off the computer is also not an option. It’s because they need computer for
homework and other school projects. Also future job of kids will almost
certainly require perfect use of a computer. So, as always, best solution is
somewhere in the middle. While using computers and internet kids must keep a
balance, the right dosage. Changing your kid habits and setting some limits,
will be hard. However, you can use one
of the third party parental control program. It allows you to block certain
sites, like social media, if you decide that your kid isn’t mature enough, to
use them. You can also block type of content, e.g. pornography. If you want to
know more, check http://www.pcwebcontrol.com
PCWebControl is user-friendly, parental
monitoring software. It is commonly used in private homes just like in public
facilities like schools.
