Parents are being urged to “close the space” between their own social media experience and their children’s.
Annabel Turner, director of the Cyber Safe Scotland group, said online risks can be greatly reduced if parents seek to be more tuned in to the precise content their children might be exposed to.
She believes there can also be a huge gulf in what parents see and what kids see on sites like Tik Tok, Instagram and Snapchat.
The warning comes after a teenage boy died following an incident at his school on Tuesday.
Hamdan Aslam, 14, was rushed to hospital after becoming unwell at St Kentigern’s Academy in Blackburn, West Lothian, yesterday afternoon.
A number of local reports suggest that Hamdan choked during the incident involving a social media challenge called 'Tap Out'. The game is believed to cause people to pass out due to a lack of oxygen.
Turner said: “This is a very difficult subject and it is a tragedy when a life is lost in this way.
“Parents should really try to look at the material that kids are consuming every day and try to anticipate any difficulties they might bring.
“This is often not easy, as what parents see can be very different to what their children see, depending on the algorithms at work.”
Turner said most kids will do their own safety checks on behaviours that look risky - but these may be flawed.
She said: “It can be different for different children but most will do their own checks online on actions that they might feel are risky.
“Unfortunately those checks can be stilted by where the platform algorithms take them and they may find reassurance that some behaviours are safe when they are not.”
Parents can seek early engagement with kids with regard to online activity.
She said: “I would say that a positive start, for all children, would be no phones or tablets for such platforms in bedrooms.
“Tablets are often best because parents can see the Material being consumed. If there is a habit formed of discussing what the child is seeing online, there can be benefits to normalising and maintaining these conversations.
‘There can be vert clear warning signs and parents should be on alert if their children’s behaviour changes, if they become withdrawn or if they suddenly don’t want to talk about what they were engaging with online.”
She added: “If the Online Safety Bill goes through as we hope there will be a lot more responsibility placed on platforms to protect young people.”
Annabel Turner founded Cybersafe Scotland in 2018 after practising for ten years as a barrister.
She is an expert in online harms and online exploitation.
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