Stranger Danger Online is Real 

Would you care if your kid sits next to a stranger in the park or even worse lays down next to a stranger in the park? 

Oh really, you do care. 

Why dont you care when a “strange” “unknown” character in Roblox, Snapchat or wherever online, befriends or hangs out with your child? 

Why is it acceptable if that “character” asks your child to “lay down” next to him/her in a online setting? 

We would not allow and see the same scenario played out in the “real world”, e.g. in a park or at a playground. 

We need to start driving parallels from what we see and accept online to the real world and not differentiate the behaviours and consider them to be harmless when they occur online.  “They are just playing a game, like millions of other kids do. There is no harm to it. They are at home. I can see what they are doing. “

Really, can you see what they are doing. Do you actually know who are the people behind those characters they hang out with every single day in their allocated 10 min screen time? 

What if that harmless character comes across your child’s snapchat? Yes, snapchat is a fun social media platform that all the tweens and teens are using, and we dont want to exclude our kids. We get it they want to belong.

I bet, its not so fun anymore when that character suddenly shows up at your house?

How could that happen?

It happens or can happen, because location sharing is enabled in snapchat. It happens, because your child let his/her guard down, because he/she played roblox with that same character for a long time and a false sense of trust and security has been established. 

The character not only exists in Roblox or online games, but like our kids across multiple social media platforms. 

So, the question is not about weather to allow screentime or online gaming or being on snapchat or any other social apps. The question is about starting conversations at a very early age about stranger danger online, about online safety, about not sharing personal information, about making our kids question certain behaviours and think before they act. 

My call to action to you is: Start having conversations very early with your kids. Talk about the safe usage of social media, what it means being safe “online” and why we should not trust people, characters blindly online. It’s about stranger danger online.