By: Surjit Singh Flora
On June 12, Peel Regional Police held a presentation on during one of their regular “Social Media Awareness” presentations. Billed as a “free event for parents” at a local public school in Brampton, only 3-4 families out of a potential 350 families showed up for the event.
How pathetic is that? When parents begin to cede control to their kids, food choices, clothes, are often the first thing to slide. If that’s the case, then why not their safety too? Children are the purest of all creation.
Their spirits are filled with innocence, joy, and laughter – we cannot help but be enamored with them. They’re such a blessing and a gifted to us. We want to see our children happy because they put a smile on our faces. Imagine what it feels like to see little ones disappointed and sad.
We never want our kids to suffer any bullying, or blackmailed over something, and they are not even aware of. The police officer who presented at the information session provided extensive information on these issues, such as Cyberbullying, Distracted Driving, Drug Education, Frauds & Scams, Human Trafficking, Personal Safety/Crime Prevention, Social Media/Cyber Safety, Youth and the Law.
They know the Internet is a magical entity capable of answering obscure questions. It’s providing its printable templates of pretty much any animal to color in. And serving up endlessly repeatable videos of startled cats, Stamp longhead’s Minecraft exploits and loom band tutorials.
What they don’t know is anything about viruses, online privacy, phishing, social networking etiquette, and any other internet safety and security issue you can think of İ think one of the critical things is to start the process of discussing online safety with your children at an early age when they begin to do anything that involves the Internet.
That’s in addition to the school-to-school, one-by-one, day-by-day Peel Police presentations on “Social Media Awareness”. Their first observation on keeping your kids safe online is not just to tell them the rules, but also to spend the time to show them that you’re the most trustworthy when it comes to the Internet. In brief, a good line of communication with your kids, where they can talk to you and you to them is the starting point for the best online protection.
When it comes to passwords, tell them to use long sentences. Easy for them to remember and hard for others to crack. That’s all about the safety of your kids and yours, the representative from Peel Police told the few attendees.
If there was a stage show, live music, circus, or free food or barbecue, some free beers, burgers and hot dogs, would more people show up? Everyone, no matter if it’s Sikhs Hindus or Muslims or Christians, brown, white or anyone else, would all run to the event and fight over the last parking spot, but sadly, when something comes like this, no one shows up.
Events like these are how we will keep our kids safe and provide them with a secure environment. Frankly, the parents who can’t take time out of their schedules to teach these important lessons to their children are so sad, it’s pathetic!
