Solving
Keys for minors:
- Having a large number of contacts does not make you more important.
- Curiosity about knowing how strangers found you online should not be satisfied by adding them to your contacts. It is technology, money or somebody hiding behind a nickname that makes it possible.
- True friends need more than a text, email or event.
- Your instinct never lets you down.
- The cam is for people you know. Many of them can record you, so cover it or put it aside. Nobody should ever ask for it.
- Never feel guilty, your parents will support you.
- Hackers cannot escape from the police. Nothing is anonymous on the Internet. If you are threatened, search for help. Even if your parents don't know how to use the computer, they know how to help you.
- Don't believe the threats, because they want you to lose control and continue abusing you.
- Behaving very politely and paying compliments is not common on the web. Do not trust it. There are no model agencies on the Internet.
- They try to gain your trust. They will ask you to give them something (a picture, a cam video). After that, they will threaten to upload it or to tell your family and friends.
- They generally use the 'game of questions'.
- Reporting does not put you at risk.
- Check your passwords and privacy settings on the web. Although something has failed, it does not have to happen again.
- What kind of friends do you want to make? Make sure they are the way you want them to be.
- They will always ask you for your contact or email address. Do not give it to just anybody. It is important to you.
- Keeping logged in, even on your computer, makes it possible for anyone to enter your life and your family and friends' life.
- Your pictures are the first thing to be seen on the web. Who do you want to have them? Privacy does not guarantee that they cannot access them.
- There is always somebody who has a better command of smartphones and Internet than you do. They belong to specialised mafias. Use your antivirus.
- Password cracking programmes can steal yours.
- Your friends do not lie, but everybody can lie on the Internet and impersonate someone else. Establish codes with your friends to identify and recognise one another.
Guidelines for families and educators:
- Have your PCs protected. Use the guest account for important data.
- Do not destroy the evidence. Make sure the assailant possesses pornographic material related to the child and report it to the police.
- Establish passwords, privacy settings and contacts guarantee. Change your profile.
- The minor is never to blame, even if we do not understand how this situation has come up.
- Keeping calm helps your child.
- Searching for professional advice and never break the law.
- Find where the crime has been committed. Every data helps.
- Internet is an essential part in a minor's life and in the future, we shall accompany them when conquering the fear of using the Internet again.
- Minimise the suffering by asking just once and after that, everything can come back to normal.
- Accompany our children when signing up so that they can feel our support.
- Help them reflect on the details they will share with the world. By making questions, options are open. On the contrary, with negations, options are closed.
- Searching for places and people offline helps give the right value to digital reality.
- Reinforcing their identity is the best way of protecting their intimacy.
- Installing security protocols at the earliest ages makes clear your intention of protecting them.
- Complying with the rules on the web, leads to them complying with the rules on the internet.
- Their naivety in relation to passwords and security settings can be dealt with through common sense and dialogue.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.