Safety online: understanding online boundaries.

How to protect yourself and others

Social media and instant access to our messages have made it a lot easier to connect with people all over the world from all different walks of life. While this opens hundreds of new doors for us, it can put us in some sticky situations. In this article, we look at setting and respecting people’s boundaries online.

In 2020 Plan International found that 59% of people surveyed had received insulting messages online, with children as young as eight years old suffering from some kind of harassment. So, what’s the solution in keeping our children and teenagers safe online?

Set the boundaries for your own family

Consider having the following conversation with your young person:

One of the key steps in keeping safe online is knowing what you’re comfortable with.

●  Are you comfortable having followers you don’t know in real life?

●  Are you comfortable receiving DMs from people you don’t know in real life?

●  Are you comfortable receiving pictures from people you don’t know in real life?

●  Would you be comfortable with any of this if you couldn’t block or report accounts?

Whether you responded ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any of these, it’s a good idea to think about your privacy settings - on most social media platforms you can set your profile to ‘private’ which often means potential followers need permission to view your posts. You can also hide things like your real name, your email address, the city you live in, and your friends.

Sharing pictures or videos

It is important for our young people to understand the laws pertaining to social media in the country in which they are growing up. In the UAE, it is a punishable offence to share pictures of others without their permission, one which could incur a large fine. This is imperative for our young people to know as they navigate the tricky world of social media.

Think before you type.

We must be aware that, although there are some fake accounts and trolls, the majority of people online are users who want to share their posts, follow their favourite celebrities and influencers, and find memes to share with their friends.

Being part of a worldwide, online community is a great way to make friends and meet people with similar interests, providing you’re careful. The majority of issues come when people online disagree, or when you contact someone who doesn’t want to be contacted.

For example, race, religion, and politics are three massively debated topics online and often lead to heated arguments, name calling, harassment, and threats. Quite often this starts off with what one user thinks is a harmless message that is blown out of proportion. And, unfortunately, other users get swept up in the nastiness and feel like they can add their own hurtful messages because everyone else is.

The key thing to remember is that whether you’re typing or speaking, the hurtful things you say to someone can’t be taken back, even if you quickly delete your comment or you don’t know the person. If you know someone would be upset with you for doing or saying something in person, it’s probably not something you should be doing online - being behind a screen doesn’t make things any more acceptable, or any less frightening or harmful.

Sharing is caring!

It is important for our young people to know they can share their concerns about social media. Have regular, open, non-judgmental conversations with your young person to ensure they know they can share concerns about other people's online behaviour in a safe space.

Adapted from the Unifrog Student Know-How Library