More and more adults get aware of the fact that a child should not be forbidden to access the Internet, but should be helped to use it avoiding harmful elements. Thus, already in the first three months of the year, the number of parents and tutors who asked advice on the portal www.siguronline.md on how to provide a safe online environment for their children has doubled. The project belongs to the International Center ”La Strada”.
The majority of adults asked the experts about how they could install a parental control program on the child’s device. In other cases, minors’ parents or tutors informed the consultant about harmful contents and even presumed cases of abuse online.
According to experts from ”La Strada”, children of different age use the new technologies differently. In these conditions, it is practically impossible to identify a universal solution, valid to ensure online safety for all children.
”Many parents already know and use various parenting control tools that help their children to use the Internet more efficiently and in safer conditions. On the other hand, there are those who don’t know anything at all about the fact that some sites can be blocked, and the content visible to their children online can be filtered. What they need to know is that forbidding the access to internet is absolutely not a solution. Children will always find a way to access the Internet, and once in the online space, they can be traumatized by harmful behaviors or content. Therefore, it is important to start education and responsibility during the first years of the childhood, but also to secure them with other protection measures, such as parental control programs”, says Angela Palancean, Project Coordinator of www.siguronline.md.
The portal www.siguronline.md was launched by the International Center „La Strada” in January 2013 with the belief that the Internet, as well as information and communication technologies can help children and youth to increase their knowledge, learn and develop. The mission of the portal is to promote safe and responsible use of the Internet by children, including with the support and involvement of specialists, parents and teachers. The portal provides useful information and advice, but also advertises a hotline for counselling and reporting of cases of abuse online.