Social media giant Facebook announced a new Parents Portal where people can learn about the social network and address the spiraling issue of child safety online. Parents Portal includes links to organizations from around the world that aim to help kids navigate their online lives.
Through Facebook's Parents Portal, everyone has easy access to videos explaining how to report abuse, how to abide by Facebook's community standards, who to add as a friend and significant matters that will help parents guide their children. The initiative follows the excessive reported cases of child anxiety and stress, caused by all kinds of threats while parents, guardians and teach have no solid plan.
Facebook Parents Portal Bridges The Gap Between The Young & The Old
According to the ISPCC, bullying, sextortion, abuse, porn, public humiliation and grooming are some of the issues children as young as five experience. What's worse is that this sordid situations are mostly unsupervised in the digital world. Facebook's Parents Portal raises awareness and educates adults on how to guide the young ones and prevent them from closing in to such situations.
"In every aspect of development, from learning to cross the road, ride a bike or swim, parents teach, guide and support their children," Simon Grehan from Webwise the Irish Internet Safety Awareness Centre said via Silicon Republic. "It should be no different when it comes to their online lives. The new Parent's Portal from Facebook is a valuable resource for parents to assist them in ensuring their children have a safe, positive online experience," he added.
Facebook Parents Portal: Mitigating Issues
In Facebook's Parents Portal, everything is broken down into easily understood pieces of information to quickly get their points across. While this isn't a guarantee that some parents will allow their kids use Facebook, online behavior and its possible damaging effects are brought to light.