Are Your Tweens Safe On The Internet?

Unlike before, tweens (kids ages 9-12) now have easy access to the internet. Because of this, parents should take time to talk to their kids about the proper and safe use of the internet. While the World Wide Web provides us with extreme accessibility and utmost convenience, safety issues has become a growing concern amongst parents of tech-savvy tweens. Pre-teens or kids in middle school utilize the internet to do a variety of tasks including:

• schoolwork
• playing online games
• researching
• emailing
• music downloading/streaming
• instant messaging
• shopping, and a lot more

Since kids spend a lot of time in the internet they can easily find their way around it. While their knowledge about the internet may be extensive, they are not mature enough to make good judgment calls. Tweens, although they do not wish to be treated like little kids anymore, are still, afterall, vulnerable children who are incapable of controlling their impulses. Most often than not, they do things on impulse. Therefore, it is really important that parents guide their children to ensure that they will nog get into any kind of trouble when using the internet.

If you think that allowing your tweens to use the internet without proper supervision is alright, then you should think again. Tweens still lack maturity and are therefore vulnerable to a lot of things online. To help you get a better picture of how unsafe the internet can be to tweens, here are some of the common online threats to pre-teens or middle school users.

• Cyberbullies
• Sexual predators
• Online Fraud
• Indecent photo uploads
• Illegal downloading
• Meeting or chatting with shady individuals

The internet does not set limitations on the content and information that tweens can access. In addition, since young people pay great importance to socializing, their interactions online can become really intense. The things they post in their blogs or other things they put on their social media profiles (i.e. pictures) may also be used against them. Therefore, it is vital that you teach your children not to reveal too much on the internet. Also, tell them not to share information with people they just met online.

Tweens are entering a transitional phase wherein they are curious about a lot of things, and the internet can get them overly excited. Therefore, before they get into trouble, monitoring their internet activity wouldn’t be such a bad idea but just make sure that you do not overdo it to the point of invading their privacy.

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