In continuation of my recent article on Dark Net and the risks it poses for children I will now discuss the ways in which a child can go to Dark Net. This can happen in two ways: Inadvertent or Intentional
Unintentional Ways: Certain videos including cartoon videos can take younger kids to Dark Net. As the video plays it keeps throwing up links to download games or more videos and sometimes clicking these links will take the child to Dark Net without him or her knowing.
Intentional Ways: Slightly older kids may get to know about the dark net through their friends or other people and this could make them very curious. In their eagerness to find out more they may download browsers like Tor which allow them to go on Dark Net. Once there they may get hooked and there on the downward spiral starts.
The important question here is how you can make out if your child is going to Dark Net. There are few tell-tale signs which should alert you.
- Look for sounds while the child is watching video. If the tone of the video changes to something which is very screaming or painful you should check the video.
- A sudden change in story line like an innocent playful Spiderman antics to something where in pregnancy, injury, pain or hurting another character is happening even if the characters remain the same.
- Too many links opening on their own.
- Teenagers actively hiding what they are watching.
- Subtle changes in behaviour in teens like enjoying pain, too much anger, very rigid views.
- Too many free gifts arriving as winnings from online games.
- Addiction to Net especially when family is away and at night.
The above are factors which you should keep a tab on.
Now what are the preventives we can take to prevent the kids from using dark net;
- For younger kids use the browser like kiddle.co or apps like YouTube kids. Remove all other browsers and video viewing apps like YouTube and DailyMotion from the device they use.
- Show them only downloaded or off line videos.
- Don’t download too many games.
- For older kids limit internet use, install firewalls and parental controls.
- Explain them the dangers of Dark Net and keep an open communication system with them.
A bit of alertness will go a long way in keep your kids safe most importantly spend time with kids and inculcate off line interests and hobbies like sports, painting, music etc in kids. Please sign up for our newsletter to keep getting regular updates
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