Is cellphone technology a blessing or a curse for parents, who are often under pressure from children to swop basic phones for the latest smartphones, although it could give them access to a darker world?
Child safety NGO Molo Songololo and the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (Waspa) provide advice for parents on how to protect children from the negative side of cellphone use.
Molo Songololo director Patrick Solomons said internet access could be useful for kids for sourcing information but it also has a bad side as it often exposed them to inappropriate material.
“What parents and kids need to realise is with basic things such as privacy, you shouldn’t give out personal information via cellphones which use internet technology.
“Children don’t know they can violate their own privacy,” said Solomons. “It is also important that the dangers of inappropriate material they come across is reported.”
He added there had been cases where children had given out information about themselves, including their home address, and had contacted people in dangerous chat rooms. Children should be educated about the proper use of cellphones, as they were useful tools, but parents needed to monitor their children.
Children also needed to monitor other children and report instances of them using their phones inappropriately, such as filming and distributing disturbing images.
Leon Perlman, chairman of Waspa, said cellphones had reached a point of ubiquity, with virtually every adult and teen in the country owning one. He said they were an unavoidable part of modern culture.
“While this is a blessing for youngsters wishing to stay in touch with their friends, plan social gatherings or just shoot the breeze, it is a potential challenge for parents if not managed correctly.”
Perlman said being a parent in the modern world was a frightening task as changes in technology over the past 20 years meant there was no precedent for how to deal with the dark side of the technology explosion.
“Parents find themselves grappling with a wide variety of cellphone-related issues, from the moment their child starts using one.
“Whatever your reason for wanting your child to have access to a cellphone, the fact remains that there is a down side to such ownership.
“Parents often worry about the possibility of their child gaining access to adult material. Other concerns include the dangers of cyberbullying and of meeting strangers in chat rooms. There are also monetary concerns around premium-rated services.”
Perlman added that the most obvious and effective way of preventing this was for parents to educate their children.
He said that most parents would feel more secure if they had some level of control over the content their children could access on their phone.
“This is not as difficult as it may seem, and there are ways for adults to block children from browsing adult sites or to completely disable the internet on a phone,” said Perlman.
He advised concerned parents to do research on safe cellphone use for children as there are a number of websites created for parents.
“Waspa can only advise parents on issues relating to cellphone safety as its primary mandate relates to enforcing our code of conduct. For this reason, parental web research is vital.
“Whatever web resource parents use, they all preach a very similar gospel to Waspa’s own message that parents should not be afraid of technology and should certainly embrace it. At the same time, however, they must take steps to avoid any unnecessary harm befalling the family.
“These sites offer parents a wide array of practical information in one place that can help successfully negotiate a potential minefield,” said Perlman. Examples of advice offered on the web include:
l If parents come across evidence of inappropriate cellphone contact with a child, they should keep a thorough record and, if need be, report it as quickly as possible to the authorities. Remember that printouts are not sustainable evidence, you need electronic evidence and live data.
l Parents should encourage their children to think carefully about the messages, photographs and other content about themselves that they post via social networking and what message that sends out to the world about them.
l Parents may want to block access to certain inappropriate material if this facility is offered by the operator.
“We must be prepared to put rules in place for our children, talk to and educate them around technology, and most crucially, learn and use the selfsame technological tools they do.
“After all, understanding what they are doing will more easily enable you to be a parental protector, rather than a ‘big brother’,” said Perlman.
Two useful websites relevant to the South African environment are www.cellphonesafety.co.za and www.parentscorner.org.za - Cape Argus