After the news of the arrest of an adult male who tried to sexually harass 300 girls in Gandía / Valencia, we have thought it convenient to remember the advice about the safety measures that parents and children should adopt to protect our children from grooming (or sexual harassment of minors through the Internet).
As Pere Cervantes and Oliver Tauste pointed out, the parents' role is to educate themselves and then educate. They are police investigating crimes committed through the Internet, in the interview we kept telling us that unfortunately the criminal acts related to minors (grooming, distribution of child pornography, cyber bullying, ...) are increasing. The National Police recommends that minors go to your parents, educators or the Security Forces and Bodies. There are a number of basic measures to be taken by the parents and by the children themselves:
In situations of harassment through the network, it is recommended,
To the parents:
Have the computer in a common area of the home, establish Internet usage rules and control usage times. It is also convenient to install parental control programs that filter access to certain content.
Help children to carry out their work and studies with the support of new technologies, as well as motivate them to conduct their own searches on topics of interest for this.
On the other hand it is due insist children not to provide personal information or photographs or videos to anyone through the Internet if there is no complete security about who will receive them; and talk with them about the risks involved in chatting where they get in touch with supposed friends who are not, or people who could impersonate minors. Our children should also not request any type of product through the network without family approval.
Content that may be harmful to the education and development of minors should be reviewed and alerted to the existence of content inappropriate for their age.
To the kids:
Although initially afraid, It is convenient to notify parents immediately if they detect content that may be dangerous when browsing or situations that may seem strange. I believe that any parent wants to protect their children above all, even above a potential anger due to a children's performance; In addition, the adult generally has more tools to solve a complicated situation.
Personal data is not provided to strangers through the network, and personal or family photos, not even information ... are never sent ... without parental authorization.
If you are going to physically stay with someone who has been known through the Internet, always consult with parents for authorization
The children They have the right not to recognize as a friend those who do not want (know him personally or not), and to communicate to his parents the situations that they find uncomfortable or annoying in relation to their Internet browsing.
The child grooming is a mode of harassment of minors on the Internet with the aim of obtaining photographs and videos of sexual content and even to sexually abuse them. The stalker develops a set of tactics to gain the child's trust through the Network. It affects boys and girls equally although the aggressors are always adult men. The psychological damage suffered by children trapped in these circumstances is enormous.
It is therefore necessary to involve the whole society (especially the family) to protect the little ones.
