Keeping children safe from internet and mobile abuse
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PARENTS are being urged to exercise more parental control over their children’s use of the internet and mobile phones and educate them on the potential dangers.
While both technologies offer opportunities for them to learn, play, and to interact with their peers, there can be downsides too. The anonymous and instantaneous nature of the internet can leave people exposed to greater risks from potential sexual predators.
Parents and children can check out the website of the Office of Internet Security (www.internetsafety.ie), or www.webwise.ie, for more information and advice on what to look out for.
Mobile operators have also come under pressure to do more to protect children from potential abuse or “cyber-bullying” through mobile phones.
02 now offers its customers a free service called Block It, which blocks unwanted text, picture and video messages from other mobile phone numbers – although it cannot block voice calls. Three Ireland have just introduced a new service called Kidsafe that is also free of charge, but is capable of blocking voice calls as well as text messages.
Vodafone recently told an Oireachtas committee that it was planning to launch a simple, configurable, blocking tool free of charge early in the new school year. It has since announced an anti-bullying action plan to tie in with this new tool. Meteor told the same committee it had a budget for a similar service and was seeking tenders.
