Melissa Hermiston
Special to the Free Press
Each week, an online book club made up of over 90 parents in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region come together to discuss the book “The Tech Diet for Your Child & Teen: The 7-Step Plan to Reclaim Your Kid’s Childhood (And Your Family’s Sanity)” by Australian psychologist, Brad Marshall. This article series captures some of the highlights from the discussion.
It’s not news to many parents that there is endless inappropriate content on the internet.
What may surprise some parents, however, is how easily accessible disturbing content is to children with unfiltered screen access.
Last month, the Tech Diet book club discussed Cyber Trauma – what it is, what long-lasting effects it can have on children and how parents can reduce the impact such content may have on their kids.
Cyber trauma is something that you have seen or read online or in other forms of media that has a traumatic impact. It could include anything from excessive violence to scary imagery or pornographic materials. To a certain extent, cyber trauma is inevitable; as children and youth spend more and more time online, recreationally or for educational purposes, their risk of exposure increases.
Children seeking out such content is also more common than you may think, as human brains are designed to be attracted to new and undiscovered things. Our brains are also wired to pay attention to things that scare us to try and make sense of it, which can result in a negative psychological impact.
Healthy communication with children is an important first step. Experts warn against using screen time as a reward or punishment, as children may be less likely to tell a parent they have seen something traumatizing on their device if they think it will get taken.
If you do discover your child has been accessing inappropriate content, stay calm and keep the lines of communication open. Ask questions so you can determine how they discovered the content and if it is something they are regularly accessing or if it was a one-time event.
Try to avoid punishment as that could trigger further confusion and shame but let your child know that new rules may need to be implemented regarding their device usage.
Most important is preventing your children’s exposure to traumatic online content. There are many filtering services available by subscription that can help block content and also regulate the number of times devices can access the internet. Although these subscriptions do cost money they are proven to be more effective than free content blockers.
The importance of sheltering children from cyber trauma can’t be understated – once something is seen it cannot be unseen.
Melissa Hermiston is the marketing coordinator for Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy.
