Could your Kids be Chatting with Strangers Online?
We often hear stories about kids being kidnapped by the strangers they are chatting with. The most common thing was that the parents had no idea about the interactions going on between the strangers and the child. They can chat at various places a person cannot think of.
It is very essential for the kids to understand that they should never share their personal information with anyone, even if the person claims to know them. This must include not providing the information to any known person as well. You must tell them that when they are chatting with any friend, they should check any stranger chat. They should also never type any personal information online, no matter what the scenario is.
Chat within Online Games
One of the most common places for kids is talking to strangers via online games. when the kid is younger than 13 years, they might not get access to all the social media sites or online games. There are a few extremely popular games like Roblox, COD, and Pub-G, that includes chat features that allow the kids to interact with strangers. These games are not quite robust in comparison to the others. There are a lot of parents who don’t even allow the kids to play such games just because of the chat option they provide. You must tell your kid to report any type of strange conversation to the game and the parent.
It is best to look after your kid’s shoulder from time to time while they are playing games with any social interactions. You must read some conversation for few minutes whenever you get time, and carry on with the day. If anything doesn’t seem fine, or you see any online stranger chat, you should directly confess regarding the same.
You must be aware of the games your kids are playing, and whether the game has a chat option to it or not. If there is a chat option, the kids have an opportunity to talk to strangers.
Also read: 7 Online Games for Kids That Are Safe to Play
Message Boards
If the kids love to role play, they discover a new platform to play out their adventures. Many games have the ability to respond to projects which can even be elaborated. People get a lot of opportunities to respond within the apps like YouTube videos, where a lot of comments are present.
People have to change their kid’s user name since it was recognizable because of some comments made on the YouTube channel. When the children don’t realize that the comments can reveal their identity and can lead them to some serious problems.
You must be aware of the comments your children are making on social media. Even when there is no specific chat feature present in the application. There are a lot of opportunities that a stranger gets to talk to the kids.
Social Media
This is one of the most dangerous out of the three and the most known option as well. In greed for getting more likes and followers, kids befriend a lot of strangers online. The innocent kids accept friends or follow requests from strangers and allow them to see the complete profile. There are a lot of questions and quizzes that kids engage in. These questions give the strangers a chance to find personal information about them. For example, kids post a quiz on “how well you know me”, which gives the strangers a fair idea about the quiz. Such information can be used by anyone like a stranger or an online predator to track the kid down easily.
Social media accounts usually have private messaging features. Hence the applications can reach out to strangers using private messages. You need to make sure that kids do not interact with people they don’t know. You also need to make them aware that even a known person can have fake accounts. While they don’t need to think regarding everyone, however, they need to check for some warning signs.
Conclusion
Internet is very dangerous for children, they need to be monitored online and their online behavior should be discussed regularly. You should install a child monitoring app to keep a check on your child’s online activities and prevent them from talking to strangers.
