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With the coronavirus pandemic forcing schools to move online, parents have been urged to make sure their kids are staying safe online, as students and teachers continue home-based learning.
Global cybersecurity company Kaspersky recently hosted an online forum featuring several industry experts, to discuss ways to keep kids online, and it underlined that between March to May 2020, as many as 47%-51% of Malaysian kids spent most of their time online searching for learning materials related to their online classes.
“It is a good sign that kids in Malaysia are using technology in a productive way. 63% parents agreed that their children are using the internet more than they did in the same period as compared to last year. Our study also revealed that parents fear for their children’s online safety, but are not putting time to talk about them. Because of these, we are glad to initiate such conversations,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.
Speaking on not attending schools and home-based learning, Datuk Dr. Chiam Heng Keng, Founding President of The Early Childhood Care and Education Council Malaysia said that students miss their friends and doing school activities.
For younger students, they are physically active and tend to have a shorter attention span.
Confinement at home and having parents who are also busy to keep kids interested, may potentially lead the young ones to frustrations, which may be demonstrated through being aggressive, intolerant, uncooperative, and disinterested.
“However, not everything is negative, as there are also many positive aspects of staying and learning at home. Parents can spend time doing things together, exercise together, or just have fun together. Our current situation enhances bonding and offers a perfect time for mothers and fathers to sit down with their kids and discuss things that matter – such as forming online habits to keep them safe,” he explained.
You’d be surprised, but playing video games with your kids (if they do), also plays a part, as pointed out by TV Host, Actor, Entrepreneur and father of three Nazrudin Habibur Rahman.
“I learned that parents who are completely unfamiliar with video games may be tempted to completely ban their children from playing. However, banning is not the healthiest solution. This is because children may have peers that play games at school and by disallowing them from participating, they may feel like an outcast. So there should be a check and balance in parenting,” he said.
“One of the most effective ways is to be good role models to our kids. For #teamnazrudin, we practice no smartphones during mealtimes and have conversations related to cyber safety, when they are in doubt. We are no experts in this area, but we will learn together,” he added.
So parents, here are some tips to keep your kids safe from cybercriminals:
- Spend more time communicating with your children about online safety measures. Tell your children what must not, under any circumstances, be published on the Internet and why.
- Surf and learn together. See where they spend their time online and explore how to best keep them safe. Also spend some time playing online games, so you can learn from each other.
- Explain that all sensitive information can be shared only via messengers and only with people you know in real life.
As it stands, all schools nationwide are set to remain closed for the rest of the year, while the new school year is scheduled to start on January 20th, 2021.
Stay safe and study hard, kids!