TO many young netizens, the offerings in virtual world have become increasingly irresistible.
There is growing concern that a generation of impressionable neophytes is clambering onto the cyber bandwagon unsupervised in ever growing numbers.
While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children.
It’s, of course, impossible to keep tabs on everything taking place on the Internet with its infinite reach and coverage. And in an unfettered setting, many youngsters nowadays are perhaps even more adept than grown-ups at seeking out not only adult websites but also other taboos.
Hence, it’s important for parents to set some ground rules for their children’s online activities – not to stifle their quest of useful knowledge but shield them from cyber predation.
But the snag is most people are not social media experts – perhaps just parents worried about their children growing up amidst the vagaries of social media and getting damaged by the darker side of the Internet.
While parents are rightly concerned about what their children are up to online, it’s virtually impossible for them, especially working parents, to monitor the heaps of social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Google+ to mention a handful – so easily navigated by their children but are often alien to the parents themselves.
Experts say “pulling the plug on the Internet is not the answer” as children use computers everyday – their smartphone is their computer. So do parents really know what the young are up to online? The answer is obviously no. Most are clueless as to the sites their children are using.
Cyber predators can deceive and manipulate the young and the unwary. What’s even more worrying is that if these predators want to get at their intended targets, they very seldom fail.
Educators have advised not rushing children into using social media, saying young minds need to be “mature enough to spot predators and old enough to tell their parents.”
Unfortunately, parents are often complacent and do not ask enough questions or think of attending cyber safety education courses.
Most young Internet users are receptive of parental supervision if advised it’s necessary for their own good. Children need to be educated on the dangers lurking online.
And parents should pay due attention to symptoms of Internet addiction disorder that include obsession with surfing the Net, lying about extent of Internet use and losing sleep to the web, among others.
Keeping children safe from online abuses requires cooperation at all levels. This, in turn, will enable law enforcement stay ahead of the crooks.
For adult netizens, it’s also quite common nowadays to meet their future spouses through a dating site. There are many successful cyber matches but many also got bluffed and jilted.
One woman who found her future husband through cyber-dating, offers this advice: “Talk to your potential dates for weeks on the phone before meeting them. Ask them truckloads of questions. See if they are uncomfortable and start lying.
“Do a Google search on them to cross-reference what they have told you. Meet them in public and take a friend who sits close by and rings you after 20 minutes. Drive yourself there, and home.”
In other words, take nothing for granted. It could mean the difference between a blissful future or one that is heart-breaking and nightmarish.
Another online sin is cyberbullying. Most governments are contemplating tackling the scourge by outlawing the posting of messages and materials online that are offensive, provocative and indecent – or incite hatred and suicides.
But such a move will only make a mockery of justice if lawmakers – while championing legislations against cyberbyllying – stoop unconscionably to the chincanery of using such legislations to play dirty politics by providing information they are privy to for use by their cyber troopers or “attack” bloggers.
This has happened before and will no doubt happen again in the political arena where the players are increasingly engaging in character assacinations and smear campaigns on social media to kill off their opponents.
The Internet is a double-edged sword. Whether it cuts the right or the wrong way depends on the manner of its usage.
As one observer notes, it’s, after all, an untamed frontier out there in cyberspace.