Protecting Children's Privacy Online
The problem of protecting children online is really a red hot issue nowadays. There are plenty of articles written on the topic, people have online discussions on social forums, governments make countries’ legal systems more rigorous as far as children’s online privacy is concerned. We may provide the examples further and further, but it is time to tell you about measures for kids’ safety on the network. To learn more on the most common threats children can face online and other ways to protect children online, visit A Guide to Protecting Children's Privacy Online.
The problem of protecting children online is really a red hot issue nowadays. There are plenty of articles written on the topic, people have online discussions on social forums, governments make countries’ legal systems more rigorous as far as children’s online privacy is concerned. We may provide the examples further and further, but it is time to tell you about measures for kids’ safety on the network. To learn more on the most common threats children can face online and other ways to protect children online, visit A Guide to Protecting Children's Privacy Online.
Smart Phones and Children
Below is a visual guide that has been created to offer parents advice on ‘Safe Smartphone Use’ for their children: Open the Guide.
This link covers the dangers of smartphones, suggestions for rules and how to use parental controls. I think it is the ultimate guide even if a parent/care-giver isn’t overly technical.
Below is a visual guide that has been created to offer parents advice on ‘Safe Smartphone Use’ for their children: Open the Guide.
This link covers the dangers of smartphones, suggestions for rules and how to use parental controls. I think it is the ultimate guide even if a parent/care-giver isn’t overly technical.
Children and Television
For the past 15 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has expressed its concerns about the amount of time children and adolescents spend viewing television and the content of what they view.
Time spent with various media may displace other more active and meaningful pursuits, such as reading, exercising, or playing with friends.
Although there are potential benefits from viewing some television shows, such as the promotion of positive aspects of social behavior (eg, sharing, manners, and cooperation), many negative health effects also can result.
AAP RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are given for pediatricians and other health care professionals:
Pediatricians should recommend the following guidelines for parents:
Pediatricians should lead efforts in their communities to do the following:
Pediatricians should work with the Academy and local chapters to challenge the federal government to do the following:
Pediatricians should work with the Academy and local chapters to challenge the entertainment industry to do the following:
Source: PEDIATRICS. Vol. 107 No. 2 February 1, 2001. pp. 423 -426 (doi: 10.1542/peds.107.2.423)
Children and the Internet
For the most part, the Internet is a rewarding place for both kids and teens, but the potential risks to their privacy and personal safety are real. While surfing the Web, your children may:
Social-networking sites are beginning to add additional safeguards for young users. Security software also offers some protection. But being aware of the risks and engaging with your children about safety are the most important things you can do to keep your family safer online.
Comparitech recently launched a guide to help parents, carers and educators protect children's privacy online. Click HERE to view it.
Toolkits
The intent of a toolkit is to provide tools to directly improve care for children and families by facilitating practice change. The type of kit is determined by the intent of the kit:
Toolkits are intended to provide tools to directly improve care for children and families by facilitating practice change.
The AAP has several toolkits available for your use. View and download the AAP Toolkits.
For the past 15 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has expressed its concerns about the amount of time children and adolescents spend viewing television and the content of what they view.
- According to recent Nielsen Media Research data, the average child or adolescent watches an average of nearly 3 hours of television per day. This figure does not include time spent watching videotapes or playing video games (a 1999 study found that children spend an average of 6 hours 32 minutes per day with various media combined).
- By the time the average person reaches age 70, he or she will have spent the equivalent of 7 to 10 years watching television.
- One recent study found that 32% of 2- to 7-year-olds and 65% of 8- to 18-year-olds have television sets in their bedrooms.
Time spent with various media may displace other more active and meaningful pursuits, such as reading, exercising, or playing with friends.
Although there are potential benefits from viewing some television shows, such as the promotion of positive aspects of social behavior (eg, sharing, manners, and cooperation), many negative health effects also can result.
- Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the messages conveyed through television, which influence their perceptions and behaviors.
- Many younger children cannot discriminate between what they see and what is real.
- Research has shown primary negative health effects on violence and aggressive behavior, sexuality, academic performance, body concept and self-image, nutrition, dieting, and obesity, and substance use and abuse patterns.
AAP RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are given for pediatricians and other health care professionals:
- Remain knowledgeable about the effects of television, including violent and aggressive behavior, obesity, poor body concept and self-image, substance use, and early sexual activity, by becoming involved in the AAP Media Matters campaign.46Educate patients and their parents about these effects.
- Use the AAP Media History form46 to help parents recognize the extent of their children's media consumption.
- Work with local schools to implement comprehensive media-education programs that deal with important public health issues.36
- Serve as good role models by using television appropriately and by implementing reading programs using volunteer readers in waiting rooms and hospital inpatient units.
- Become involved in the AAP's Media Resource Team (contact the Division of Public Education), and learn how to work effectively with writers, directors, and producers to make media more appropriate for children and adolescents. Contact networks and producers of television programs with concerns about the content of specific shows and episodes.
- Ensure that appropriate entertainment options are available for hospitalized children and adolescents. Work with child life staff to assemble a screening committee that selects programs for closed circuit broadcast or a video library. Develop institution-specific, formal guidelines based on the established ratings system (which takes profanity, sex, and violence into account), and screen for content containing ethnic and sex role stereotyping. Considerations should also be made to avoid themes hospitalized children might find upsetting, and efforts should be made to enforce the ratings system in the hospital setting.
- Support the Children's Television Act of 1990 and its 1996 rules by working to ensure that local television stations are in compliance with the act and by urging local newspapers to list ratings and E/I denotations of programs.
- Monitor the television ratings system for appropriateness and advocate for substantive, content-based ratings in the future.
Pediatricians should recommend the following guidelines for parents:
- Limit children's total media time (with entertainment media) to no more than 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day.
- Remove television sets from children's bedrooms.
- Discourage television viewing for children younger than 2 years, and encourage more interactive activities that will promote proper brain development, such as talking, playing, singing, and reading together.
- Monitor the shows children and adolescents are viewing. Most programs should be informational, educational, and nonviolent.
- View television programs along with children, and discuss the content. Two recent surveys involving a total of nearly 1500 parents found that less than half of parents reported always watching television with their children.5,47
- Use controversial programming as a stepping-off point to initiate discussions about family values, violence, sex and sexuality, and drugs.
- Use the videocassette recorder wisely to show or record high-quality, educational programming for children.
- Support efforts to establish comprehensive media-education programs in schools.
- Encourage alternative entertainment for children, including reading, athletics, hobbies, and creative play.
Pediatricians should lead efforts in their communities to do the following:
- Form coalitions including libraries, religious organizations, and other community groups to broaden media education beyond the schools.
- Organize activities promoting media education, such as letter-writing campaigns to local television stations to advocate for better programming for children, and developing local TV turnoff week projects.
Pediatricians should work with the Academy and local chapters to challenge the federal government to do the following:
- Initiate legislation and rules that would ban alcohol advertising from television.
- Fund ongoing annual research, such as the National Television Violence Study, and fund more research on the effects of television on children and adolescents, particularly in the area of sex and sexuality.
- Assemble a National Institutes of Health Comprehensive Report on Children, Adolescents, and Media that would bring together all of the current relevant research.
- Work with the US Department of Education to support the creation and implementation of media-education curricula for school children.
Pediatricians should work with the Academy and local chapters to challenge the entertainment industry to do the following:
- Take responsibility for the programming it produces.
- Adhere to the current television ratings system, and label programs conscientiously.
- Collaborate with other public health advocates to convene a series of seminars with writers, directors, and producers to discuss ways to make media more appropriate for children and adolescents.
- Produce more educational programming for children and adolescents, and ensure that the programming it produces is of higher quality, with less content that is gratuitously violent, sexually suggestive, or drug oriented.
Source: PEDIATRICS. Vol. 107 No. 2 February 1, 2001. pp. 423 -426 (doi: 10.1542/peds.107.2.423)
Children and the Internet
For the most part, the Internet is a rewarding place for both kids and teens, but the potential risks to their privacy and personal safety are real. While surfing the Web, your children may:
- stumble upon disturbing information or images,
- innocently accept or share files that could expose your family to Internet thieves or computer viruses
- encounter cyber bullies who try to embarrass or intimidate them
- unknowingly communicate with child predators who use the Internet to befriend vulnerable children by pretending to be another child or a trustworthy adult and then try to persuade them to meet in person.
Social-networking sites are beginning to add additional safeguards for young users. Security software also offers some protection. But being aware of the risks and engaging with your children about safety are the most important things you can do to keep your family safer online.
Comparitech recently launched a guide to help parents, carers and educators protect children's privacy online. Click HERE to view it.
Toolkits
The intent of a toolkit is to provide tools to directly improve care for children and families by facilitating practice change. The type of kit is determined by the intent of the kit:
Toolkits are intended to provide tools to directly improve care for children and families by facilitating practice change.
- Resource kits are intended to improve self-knowledge about a topic.
- Speaker/training kits are intended to assist health care professionals in educating others about a topic.
The AAP has several toolkits available for your use. View and download the AAP Toolkits.