On April 15 2020, Unicef released a statement to warn parents that millions of children are at increased risk of harm as their lives move increasingly online, during lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Internationally, over 1.5 billion children and young people have been affected by school closures, and many students are now taking classes or socializing more online.
Spending more time online can leave children vulnerable to online sexual exploitation and grooming, as predators are aware of the fact that more children are online more often, and they look to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic for their own inappropriate desires.
A lack of face-to-face contact with friends and partners may lead to heightened risk-taking such as sending sexualized images, while increased and unstructured time online may expose children to potentially harmful and violent content as well as greater risk of cyberbullying.
Unicef
At Violence Prevention Avalon East, we want to empower parents to:
- Understand the risks your children face online in 2020;
- How to educate your children about these topics; and,
- Give you peace of mind that your children will know how to react, if they or a friend ever find themselves in an unsafe situation.
What would you like to learn?
What’s On Your Child’s Smartphone?
Learn about the most popular social networks and apps children are using in 2020.
Cyber Crime Trends in Canada
Educate yourself on the latest trends in cyber crime across Canada.
Protecting Children Online: Emerging Issues Toolkit
Learn about the emerging issues that children face online. We hope this toolkit makes you feel confident talking to your children about these topics; whether it’s cyber bullying, luring, sextortion, and more.
Teaching Children About Healthy Boundaries: Toolkit
How to talk to your child about creating and respecting healthy personal boundaries. Help them understand how predators try to cross those boundaries, and how to not cross other peoples boundaries themselves.
Privacy Settings: A Guide To Securing Your Accounts
A step-by-step guide to understanding the current privacy and security settings on iPhones/iPads, Androids, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.
Popular Safety Apps for Parents
There are many online tools to help parents reinforce screen time limits, hide explicit language/material, and ensure your children are safe when they’re online. We will discuss three of the more popular apps parents are using in 2020.
What Should Parents Know About Live Streaming?
Helping parents understand live streaming, the potential risks, and how to empower your children to stay safe.
Parental Controls on Gaming Consoles
Looking at the three most popular gaming consoles right now, we give you an overview of the parental controls and how you can use them to keep your children safe.
Under the shadow of COVID-19, the lives of millions of children have temporarily shrunk to just their homes and their screens. We must help them navigate this new reality.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore