Online Bullying.

Stewart from Kamo

Whose fault is it if your child is being bullied online?

The simple answer is, yours. As parents you are responsible for your child’s online access, not the ISP, not the Government or other agency. It is up to you to keep them safe.

But these days parents don’t seem to want to accept that responsibility, and would rather blame platforms like X, Instagram, FaceBook and Tic Toc. Now are those platforms cesspools of degenerates, disinformation and frequent bullying, yes. Yes they are, but it is not up to them to keep your kids out and off those platforms, it is the parents’ job.

Built into every modern router are parental controls that can block your child’s device (phone, Tablet and computer) from accessing those sites easily. It is also not hard to learn, takes around 5 to 20 mins to learn and implement those blocks, or you can get someone to do it for you.

That’s it, your child is blocked.

But what about the smart phones? I hear you cry, they can access the sites via their mobile data. Simple, no child under 13 should even have a smart phone. If you are willing to buy your 7- or 8-year-old a smart phone and give them unrestricted access, that is your fault, again not the platforms. You are the parent, at least you are supposed to be, try acting like one.

But you want them to be able to call in an emergency, or just to keep in touch.

I hear you, and again the answer is simple, buy them a ‘Dumb’ Phone. This is a phone that can make calls, text, has GPS tracking and Maps. But Nothing else, it cannot install other apps, cannot browse the web and keeps your children safe.

When your child is old enough for a smart phone then, get them a low data sim card and put parental blocks in place to block the type of apps they should not be using. Tell your child that they can only have a smart phone if they let you monitor their online activity, if they refuse, then don’t get the phone. If they buy one themselves, take it off them. You are the parent start acting like it, don’t give into their whining.

The power to control your child’s online activity has always been with the parent, but it seems these days most parents just give their kids free reign to do what they like and would rather blame the platforms for their own failures as parents. If you can’t be bothered parenting your child then perhaps you should not have had them in the first place.

Because parents have not taken responsibility for their own children, it has left the door open for the government to step in and not only block children, but spy on every law abiding adult. Forcing them to upload sensitive private biometric data to 3rd party companies, that can and have, not only been hacked for that data, but can sell and have sold that data for hundreds of millions of dollars. Your private data is a marketing firms dream and you can bet they will get their hands on that data one way or the other.

So parent your own kids and stop forcing the government into doing the job parents should be doing from the start.