Teenagers are spending an average of 28 hours a week online these school holidays, says cyber safety company Family Zone.
And as the younger generation turns away from free-to-air TV in record numbers, some estimates suggest that 60 per cent of teenage internet time is spent on YouTube.
After the scandals of Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, using racial slurs in his streams, and Logan Paul making light of suicide and showing a dead body in a video, some parents have become concerned about what their children could be watching.
Many older children will be playing the new season of Fortnite these school holidays.
And younger children are just as vulnerable, with machine-created videos appearing online that star popular characters such as Peppa Pig brutally murdering her friends and doing other disturbing things. Such videos can play automatically at the end of regular cartoons and are often indistinguishable until the stabbing.
YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, advises parents to watch content with their children and discuss it with them. The company also suggests ensuring that young children watch cartoons that appear on approved or official playlists, lest the up-next feature automatically play something that would best not be seen.
Another big draw for children and young adults over the holidays has been the launch of season six of Fortnite, the popular battle-royale game. The new season brings new challenges, outfits (or “skins”) for characters, areas to explore and the keenly awaited pets.
Fortnite is an online multiplayer game, so children can play and interact with their friends. The social nature of the game, alongside the Minecraft-esque construction, clear objectives and thrill of surprise loot drops, are the main draws of the title that can engross children for hours at a time.
The Child Mind Institute of America advises parents who are concerned about their child’s behaviour in the game to explain “the difference between good-natured trash talk, which is fine, and bullying, which isn’t”. It is also advised to sit down with the child and gain a solid understanding of why they care about the game, and to enforce limits on screen time.
Fortnite, like all online platforms, opens the door to children interacting with someone who isn’t who they say they are. One way to combat this is to ensure that children add people to their friends lists only if they know them in person, and for parents to familiarise themselves with the parental controls on their console of choice.
Safe internet use
Tips for parents:
• Be aware of how much time your child spends on the internet.
• Talk to your child about the dangers of online conversations, particularly with someone they have only ever met online.
• Explore the internet with your children and let them teach you about their favourite websites and apps.
• Keep computers and internet-enabled devices in a room that the whole family can access, not in your child's bedroom, and monitor internet access on those devices.
• Consider installing filtering and/or computer blocking software provided by your internet service provider.
• Ensure you can access your child's email and social media accounts, and check the contents randomly.
• Check your phone bill for unusual outgoing calls and consider using caller ID to identify incoming calls.
• Consult your phone company for options to ensure privacy and security.
• Inquire with your child's school, public library and places they frequent to find out what internet safety measures are in place.
Tips for children:
• Do not send a picture of yourself to anyone you don't know, and never place a full profile and picture anywhere on the internet.
• Never give out your personal information, including full name, home address, phone number or school, over the internet.
• Never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone you know only online.
• Tell your parents or another adult you know of any contact that makes you feel uncomfortable.
• Think carefully before uploading or sending images or videos to people over the internet. Once you press "send", it’s definite and final: you can’t get it back or take it down.
Information on internet safety is available here on the NSW Police website.
Information on youth issues, including online safety, is available here on the NSW Police website.
With Sally Rawsthorne
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