Chatting via messenger, playing computer games together or taking part in social media trends – media enable us to be in contact with others.
Children and young people face many challenges when communicating online.
On Elternguide.online, we explain how you and your family can deal safely and competently with communication risks online.
When we write messages via Messenger, we don’t just use letters, we also like to use emojis. However, care should be taken to avoid misunderstandings. Chatting, posting and gaming is fun.
However, being constantly available can overwhelm children and young people, lead to digital stress and the fear of missing out(FOMO).
Be aware of your role model function and, if necessary, make technical adjustments together to regulate media use.
Whether through online gaming, video chats or social media – it’s easy to meet new people on the internet.
Contact with strangers can be risky because we don’t know the person’s intentions and don’t know who is actually communicating with us. Is it really the same age gamer friend? When perpetrators write to children or young people to initiate sexual contact, this is known as cybergrooming.
If supposedly private images such as nude photos are used to blackmail someone, this is called sextortion.
Both are serious risks that you can minimize if you accompany your child online and inform them about the risks in an age-appropriate manner.
You can find out how to protect your child from sexual violence online here.
Sometimes communication with friends and acquaintances can also become problematic. Among young people, there is a risk of cyberbullying, for example, via chat groups. It is helpful if rules are agreed on how to deal with messenger chats. Discuss this with other parents and your child’s teachers.
Talk to your child about how they should deal with insults and nasty comments and make them aware of reporting points.
The internet is not always a friendly place.
Trolls and haters launch attacks under the guise of anonymity and deliberately provoke people in comment columns.
Online hate speech can spoil the fun of posting videos and photos online. Thinking carefully about what you post or share is the first step to a safe browsing experience. Forming their own opinion is one of the developmental tasks of children and young people.
During the orientation phase, they can be susceptible to simple answers and radical positions from extremists. Whether in forums, chats or online games – children and young people can come across extreme opinions and conspiracy myths anywhere online.
Make it clear to your child why they should not trust all content online.
Show your child how they can check information and familiarize them with the various reporting points on the internet.
Many gamers play games together, even if they are sitting in different places.
When gaming, communication takes place via a headset or the chat function within a game.
It is not always clear who is talking to you on the other end.
If possible, players should block other people’s contacts.
Gamers sometimes use harsh language, known as trash talk.
If insults and conflicts escalate, this can lead to hatred among gamers.
Keep in touch with your child about their favorite games and use technical youth media protection solutions. You can find out more about communication risks and how you can deal with them in these articles:
A particular advantage of the Internet is fast and easy communication. Most often, we use social networks and messenger services for this purpose. However, usually only those who write and chat with each other know what it’s all about. The contents remain hidden from the outside. That’s a good thing, too, because after all, some things you only want to discuss with your best friend or with mom.
However, people also use these communication channels who have other intentions than keeping personal things to themselves. They want to spread false news and manipulate opinions. What we know as fake news from news portals or social networks is also increasingly taking place in hidden, i.e. dark networks. This is referred to as dark social because there is no insight into the communication. No one can control whether the Internet is abused in this way. Radicals or people with extreme political views use chat groups to target people and build trust. They sneak into such chats through others, spreading messages that others forward carelessly.
This is a danger not only for children and teenagers, because it feels like chatting with friends or family via the smartphone. Messages you get in what should be a private chat group look credible because you know the person who shared them. One assumes quite unthinkingly that the report is actually true and does not question it. In this way, false reports can spread quickly and opinions can be manipulated.
No matter where you get information from, you should question it critically and not believe everything. That is certainly easy to say. A tip: You should be careful and better check news items that particularly stir or excite you emotionally. Can you find references to it elsewhere? Research the news story on the Internet and look at a variety of sources. Think about where the information came from and who spread it. Even if a friend, close confidant or relative writes, in many cases it’s worth just asking. You and your child should be especially critical when casual acquaintances or contacts spread information. In Messenger groups, too, you should be sensitive to fake news, hate speech, and insults to individual groups.
When your child recognizes that you, as a parent, are critical of information, you encourage such behavior in your child as well. Explain to him why some people manipulate information and how to handle information.
Young people in particular are constantly looking for role models and want to feel they belong. They build up their own values and ideals, which can be negatively influenced by third parties.
