We all love Skype. One of my best friends lives in Australia, and realistically, we\u2019re not the world\u2019s best \u201cemail-buddies\u201d. But the combination of Skype and Facebook work really well for us when it comes to keeping in touch.\u00a0 A quick update here, a couple of picture comments there, the odd \u201clike\u201d and every couple of weeks a good old computer-face to computer-face Skype natter.\u00a0 So whilst logging in on Skype the other day to catch up with my suntanned friend, I was greeted with a lovely message from a \u201cVanda [insert random numbers here]\u201d saying \u201cHey! I was flicking through the directory and I don\u2019t know you, but I thought you looked like a good person to talk to, add me!\u201d Despite the fact that I was hugely complimented that I \u201clooked like a good person to talk to\u201d and that adding Vanda would take my Skype friend total to nine (!), Vanda was promptly ignored.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re on Skype, or if you\u2019re part of the\u00a0500 million people\u00a0on Facebook, then I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve experienced the same. Every so often, there\u2019s a new \u201cFriend\u201d request in your box, you have the moment of \u201cwho could it be!\u201d excitement and on opening it up, you haven\u2019t got a clue.<\/p>\n
Having grown up with slogans such as \u201cSay NO to strangers\u201d and \u201cStranger Danger\u201d, it seems to make clear sense that should someone wish to befriend us that we don\u2019t know, aka stranger, we reject their very kind offer. So why is it we have a generation today that may be happy to accept Vanda\u2019s offers of friendship?<\/p>\n
We need to understand our young people today are a generation who are not \u2018adjusting\u2019 to social-media like many others are, they are in fact the children<\/strong> of social-media. Where we have had to learn, they have been born into it. I know 2 year olds who can operate an iphone, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen the recent \u201cI\u2019m a PC\u201d adverts featuring a four and half year old uploading pictures and another with an eight year old creating a photo-movie. Using social-media has become literal child\u2019s-play.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just computer access, mobile technology and networking is on the up. 28% of 18-24 years olds check Facebook on their mobile before they even get out of bed in the morning. Young people now have more access to the internet than ever before with the rise of the smartphone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Facebook has a clear policy that under 18\u2019s are given a recommended default security setting. However this setting allows everyone (yes everyone<\/strong>) to see their photos and posts, their biography and their family and relationship status. Bearing in mind all someone under the age of 13 (Facebook is for 13 years old and over) needs to do is to slightly amend their date of birth, it\u2019s very easy for a young person\u2019s world to be opened up to unknown eyes and online strangers.<\/p>\n At Young Scot, we\u2019re passionate about new technology and new digital media; in fact we have a whole team dedicated to it. We understand communication is evolving and it\u2019s so important to keep at the forefront of it.\u00a0 Social networking offers new engagement opportunities (anything that can get 500,000,000 users from every country, culture, religion and age group (over 13<\/strong>) in 6 years can\u2019t be all bad) but at the same time, safety is paramount to this. While 70% of Facebook users are under 30, the message of \u201cSay Ignore<\/em> to Strangers\u201d needs to be reiterated time and time again. Using the code created by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, we have a clear \u201cZip It, Block It and Flag It\u201d approach:<\/p>\n Zip It:<\/strong> think about what you say and post \u2013 don\u2019t put up anything you wouldn\u2019t show to your mum, dad or carer<\/p>\n Block It:<\/strong> Block any nasty posts or people you don\u2019t know<\/p>\n Flag It:<\/strong> Flag up any problems or concerns immediately with a trusted adult or organisation<\/p>\n With so many great Internet Safety resources now available, access to advice and support has never been so easy.\u00a0Isis Forensics have just\u00a0released a free mobile application to help children and young people identify adults posing as children on chat rooms or social networking sites. Glow has a wealth of information, links and resource to encourage responsible use of the internet (check out our Young Scot group page here!) <\/a>and organisations such as CEOP and Save the Children have hard-hitting awareness campaigns, resource and tools such as the CEOP \u2018Report Abuse\u2019 button on various social networking sites. However the message of privacy and \u201cSay No\u201d still needs to be reiterated on every level. \u00a0Social Networking and media is there to enhance lives, open healthy doors of opportunity and communication and add to friendships and partnerships. In a word, it\u2019s there to be enjoyed<\/strong>. All we ask is that it\u2019s enjoyed safely, and this is the message that we need to keep in front of our Young People.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Young Scot Internet Safety and Responsible Use Guest Blog <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[128,116,129,689,133,121,90,2602],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-esafety","tag-facebook-2","tag-internet","tag-internet-safety","tag-parents","tag-privacy","tag-social-networking","tag-young-scot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/ISRU-News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}