In this edition, we are offering the most valuable tools you can hope for:
An agreement between you and your child, a video tour of safety settings on Roblox, an honest insight into the ‘screen time’ challenge, a metaphor that kids can hold onto to take a greater role in their own safety.
And more.
You must be a MySociaLife's Digitaling Parent Club member to access this content.
Most parents struggle with how to actually walk through the settings that ensure their kids are safe from predators. Remember, if your kids can chat to anyone, or join anyone's server, then they're at risk. Take a look below.
Chat forums' online - the back and forth of communication in games and social platforms, is now as normal as most things kids do on screens. But think about it a little deeper? While there are some benefits to being included, and chatting with friends, do you (as a parent) have adequate understanding of the complexities of chat? Cyberbullying is much, much harder without 'chat', and predators cannot access your kids.
If you don’t believe us, ask your kids about gaming ‘clickbait’. How?
See our conversation starters here, and at the bottom of this newsletter!
You must be a MySociaLife's Digitaling Parent Club member to access this content.
You must be a MySociaLife's Digitaling Parent Club member to access this content.
A rare live radio interview, with
Dean McCoubrey, founder of MySocial Life
Rachelle Best, founder of FYI Play it Safe
Pam Tudin Buchalter, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of KLIKD
We teach this exact concept when we guide pre-teens in schools. It's more effective if you show them the extent you go to, in order to keep family safe. Making safety a real-life practice helps the penny to drop that even online strangers can 'come knocking'...and any intrusion affects not just one person, but others too. They need a concept to hold on to, to ensure they absorb that they will need their own safeguards in place too.
ONLINE GAMING FRAUD
Parents lose R8000 in 20 minutes!
In a lesson with Grade 5 students (age 9), a young boy shared a story of how he had been ‘clickbaited‘ (= tempted by an online offer) where he was offered, inside a game, to buy a ‘skin‘ (=an outfit or type of avatar/gaming character) for a low price. To make the transaction he clicked a link and asked for his parents’ credit card, and the rest of course is history 🙁 The credit card started spending almost immediately. Alcohol, clothes, and more…
Click this link to learn more about gaming fraud.
CONVERSATION STARTERS:
Ask your kids about “The Chat Function”
In a video above, within this newsletter, we cover the complexities of “chat”, the ability to chat with others online…see the video here in case you missed it. As always, we will give you some questions to chat with your child. Often these will focus on current games or apps that it’s important to discuss. For now, let’s just get some basic questions down. Try these.
Click this link
These might be more revealing than you think!
Thanks for being a member of DPC!
Good on you; your kids would be proud down the line. You did the right thing; expand your awareness.
SADAG: Contact a counsellor between 8am-8pm Monday to Sunday, call: 011 234 4837
For A Suicidal Emergency: Contact 0800 567 567 or 24hr Helpline 0800 456 789
Childline: Call the helpline 24/7 on 116 (Free from all networks)
