I had the privilege of attending a panel discussion organised by the Optimist Clubs of Barbados on Internet Safety. It was both timely and very helpful in empowering those who were there to be critical thinkers and safe promoters of the Internet. It began with a brief video presentation on eSafety followed by some very articulate secondary school students who shared their views about the Internet. The evening’s schedule was very tight and lots was discussed, however, due to time constraints I was not able to share my views on the matter then so I have posted my comments and some afterthoughts here.

As reported by the Barbados Nation Newspaper, the Minister of Education and Human Resources Ronald Jones announced that he would be moving towards banning the use of cell phones by students at all schools in the island at the start of the new academic year. Though perhaps a good move to stop the use of mobiles within schools along with all ‘wrong doing’ that was made possible with this privilege, what about when these young citizens and prospective employees are outside of school and equipped with such ‘evil’ technology? Is this ban really adequate?

Recently one of the local newspapers covered some troubling news pertaining to local school children sharing videos on the Internet and via mobile phones of themselves and peers performing sexual acts. I for one have heard of such videos and have refused to view them but I’ve seen many Youtube videos of local children in school fighting and so on. This not only reflects badly on them later but on their schools and unfortunately even our country. With regards to the younger kids, Symantec reported that ’sex’ and ‘porn’ were among the top 5 most searched terms by children in 2009. This proves even more that Children’s curiosity can often lead them into trouble especially online. So where do you as parents draw the line? How can you protect your child(ren) without pulling the plug and still allow them the opportunity to learn and to use the Internet? I will briefly answer these questions by explaining what children do online and the dangers they face as a consequence. Also, I will offer 5 tips that you can use to keep them safe on the Internet.