If you’ve completed a Codey Adventure, you’ll know all about a circle of trust! A circle of trust can help you start difficult conversations about the dangers your child may find online. Online violence and abuse are at an all-time high and only increasing because no one is talking! Children are especially vulnerable to this as they feel insecure, or fear being punished for seeing or doing the wrong things online. Communication has been identified by UNICEF as a major pillar to fight this epidemic that is growing online. Globally 70% of children do not share what they experience. Sometimes, parents are forced to face difficult discussions. It’s not something we look forward to doing. However, having these discussions is an essential part of keeping our children safe. You can water down the replications, and you can honey-coat some of the words but at the end of the day, there are bad people out there. These bad people are master manipulators, and they know how to gain trust and convince gullible children to do almost anything they want.
The circle of trust is a recurring theme throughout the adventures, as it’s essential that children know who they can trust with anything. They must have access to their passwords and be people that are in their immediate family, or close circle of friends even educators. From that circle there must be one person, we call this person your Wise Croc. A wise croc is scary to talk to, but you know they have your back no matter what and they have a hard snap! There is nothing they would not do for them. This can be a mom, dad, aunt, or a friend’s mom. But it must be someone that they know will fight to the death for them to protect them. This is why Peers or friends would not be a wise choice. Once a child has identified their circle and wise croc, they know they have a team behind them and no matter what happens they have people who are there to support them.
Here are 6 steps to help you tackle these very serious topics:
- By teaching children from an early age, that they are special, their name, photos and information is unique to only them. They will start to be more careful with what they share.
- Agree to the rules ahead of time. As a family discuss the rules around technology and agree to the rules ahead of time. These rules will change as your child grows up and you can have an annual day when these rules are amended to suit their needs and maturity.
- Keep track of the times they listened and the times they have not, it must be a give and take. If a child can see that they have not kept to the rules they can’t expect to be given more freedom.
- Make sure they know who is in their circle of trust. And together identify that one person who is their wise Croc. Let this person know! They need to be ready and willing to act should the time come.
- Keep talking, look for local stories, and share stories of incidents that have either happened to you or you have heard has happened to someone else. By keeping the topics relevant and topical you keep reminding them that you are there and understand what they may be going through.
- Be clear on what platforms they can enjoy or not. If it’s only YouTube and Age-appropriate games, then that is all they are allowed to enjoy this year. Social Kids are firm believers that no child under 13 years of age should be on a social media platform, especially unsupervised.
It’s not always easy to confront difficult situations or approach topics that you may feel your child is not ready for. The reality is our children are growing up in an online world, one that knows no age limit. There are predators and criminals who seek out these innocent minds, to trick and manipulate for their own gain. Through constant communication, mutual respect and set boundaries we can keep our children safe.
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