Parental controls are the first step to protecting your children from online predators. Predators though are not always people looking to molest or traffic a child. Sometimes a predator’s objective appears in the form of daring a child to destroy their very life.
Just as I previously warned of the Blue Whale app, I want to make you aware of the MOMO challenge which also starts small but moves a child sadly towards a suicide dare. We as parents need to talk to our children younger and younger about sadness, depression and how valuable their lives are. Children younger and younger are wishing they would not exist and we need to help them celebrate the lives they have and get them help when their feelings of no longer wanting to be on this earth do not disappear.
Please talk with your children about talking with you about what they encounter and view online even if they dismiss it. We need to enter our kids online worlds so we know them and what they are exposed to.
You may also find that not everything you discover is scary. In fact some might be beneficial. For example, I learned that my son now takes showers after watching a you tube lesson on how bacteria grows on the body.
Awareness, monitoring, and conversation = prevention.
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