With the new generations more comfortable than ever to share their world online – what are the risks?
Times Have Changed
Teenagers face a unique digital landscape, with previous generations much more concerned with their online safety and information, today’s Teens embrace sharing it ; Partially due to the evolution of Youtube and Content Creators making a living out of sharing their lives online, becoming an Influencer has actually been one of the most commonly cited ‘dream jobs’ of children today. This eagerness to share, although having its benefits, is actually one of the main issues with their lack of cyber safety concerns.
According to one study, teens and young adults ages 16 to 24 spend on average almost 200 minutes a day (3 hours, 20 minutes) online on a mobile device, often more. With that much time spent online, they’re bound to frequently encounter risks or unpleasant experiences, whether intentionally or not.
Technology is adapting and evolving constantly, our lives are slowly incorporating it at almost every turn. The convenience, connection and seemingly endless possibility and information has us all hooked. But with a digital wild-west landscape being one of today’s most indulged past-times, how do we keep our most vulnerable members of society safe?
Often the is conversation about children and toddlers, screen-time is raised as a major concern for parents but we tend to overlook the internet’s most comfortable users – teenagers.
Sharing Is Not Always Caring
As quickly as cyberspace develops, so too do its dangers.
When we speak of said danger, it’s often limited to the more obvious threats like hackers, malware, viruses, and identity theft. What this narrow scope fails to take into account is, perhaps, the most important part of keeping yourself safe online and a persistent point of vulnerability for nearly every demographic: Mental Health. It’s well understood by this point in the internet’s history that spending too much time in cyberspace can be detrimental, especially in this era of social media. In a modern teenager’s world, their social status and personal image is inevitably tied to it. Connections made through social media, even through other interests such as meeting on a gaming platform, are becoming one of the main pathways for finding friends as a teen.
A lack of education and safety measures put in place surrounding who you interact with online, how you spend your time online, and what you consume actually affecting you is fast-tracking a mental health decline in today’s youth.
The dopamine hit of validation social media and other platforms can provide can cause teenagers to feed into other people’s approval without realising the sensitive information they are actually sharing, ultimately contributing to a crushing self esteem and how that could potentially harm them or affect them in the future – as we all know, nothing’s ever truly deleted from the internet. AI also has become a new type of online threat, with people composing imagery using other’s faces in inappropriate and explicit ways, and sharing it around ; almost indiscernible from a real image, laws are struggling to catch up on providing a protective channel to prosecute against this.
Unfortunately, with the anonymity of the internet and the ability to tweak and alter who you really are, especially with the new development of AI and it’s incredibly ability to mimic or compose imagery/video based off what it’s trained on, predators can easily manipulate an unsuspecting victim into believing they are harmless and sincere, even develop a relationship with them without ever truly having to reveal who they are, for a benefit of receiving explicit information or photos.
Teens Are At Risk – How Do We Protect Them?
It’s easy to jump to the conclusion to simply shield them from having access to these vulnerabilities to begin with, that if they just abstain they will be safe – but if Sex Ed in the same line of thinking has ever taught us anything, it’s that this is ineffective.
Realistically, technology is only going to continue to submerse itself more prominently in our lives and the best next steps forward is educating them, and providing the best tools and resources in order to protect them. While the way technology has become malicious has changed over time, viruses and hackers are not truly the main concern anymore for the next generation- things like personal images, passwords, sharing sensitive information (such as location and address), banking details, and mental health regarding how our time is spent online remain a concern.
Below is a graph from a study conducted where gathered data from a convenience sample of 733 Teenagers were analysed and their contact with risky online situations.
Adolescents’ Exposure to Online Risks: Gender Disparities and Vulnerabilities Related to Online Behaviours | Published online 2021 May 27 | PMC PubMed Central
Combating the dangers of the internet with restrictions works well for children who are still learning how to navigate it, but not so much for Teens. One of the best ways we can help them stay protected is introducing them to ways they can keep themselves safe:
Provide them with protection softwarethey can manage and navigate in order to give peace of mind. Allow them to keep track of what they are exposing themselves to and to keep their information such as passwords and sensitive identification information safe. Internet banking and payment protection along with regular scans can help assist to detect wether they have been compromised.
Educate them on the risks and threats the modern cyber space has, ‘stranger danger’ is not really effective online as everyone is a stranger, though you can discuss what are some key signs someone has malicious intentions (such as asking for deeper personal information, explicit photos, locations or family members names). It’s important to remember that the internet can be a good place to make friends as well, but to be aware that if someone is making you uncomfortable, you do not have to keep interacting with them.
Be aware of what you share, teach them that some things are not to be shared attached with your name or personal identifications (such as under your full name or attached to a profile with your face available), as this can affect their future if an employer or even malicious predators try to track their digital footprint.
Finally, keep communications open. Recognise if you are a parent that your teen might not share all and every instance of risky interaction online with you, but that if they were to ask you for help, that you provide a safe and comfortable environment for them to do so, do not make them feel as if it’s their fault or overreact – they’re learning too!
