THE Durban North Baptist Church in association with the child protection organisation, The Guardian, hosted a social media awareness evening at @Tap community centre on Wednesday. According to Jeanine Mare, a children’s worker at Durban North Baptist Church, the need to educate parents on the perils of social media arose from the arrest of the Cape Town pastor charged with online child exploitation.
Valerie Melis, Senior Public Prosecutor for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) presented, ‘The dangers of social networking’ on behalf of Marc Hardwick of The Guardian.
Melis addressed the various methods child predators use to track, groom and extract information from children via social media giants; Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Whats App.
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She illustrated the impact of social media on the child safety by drawing on real-life experiences and cases she’d previously worked on. She cautioned: “Remember people can be anyone they want on the internet.”Melis recommend the following guidelines as a means to monitor children’s social media activity:
6 of her top tips:
· Computer usage should take place in a common area where activity can easily be monitored
· Be knowledgeable of the sites children use
· Teach children about the dangers of the internet and social media
· Make sure your child is old enough to surf the internet unaccompanied
· Be more actively involved in your child’s life
· Use technology to your advantage.
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Attendee Warrick Hansen praised the presentation saying: “It was very informative, it’s completely changed my perception, especially of Snapchat. It is frightening, I work in the digital world and I wasn’t aware of all the dangers.”
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