(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Young people are spending more time online during the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s leading to troubling behavior.
That’s the assessment from Liz Repking, founder of Cyber Safety Consulting. She said she’s never seen anything like this in her 10 years of online safety instruction.
“I’m seeing tweens make fake online accounts to harass other tweens. I’m seeing revenge porn in middle school. I’m seeing extreme racism,” she said Wednesday.
When school districts adopted remote learning, kids switched from hanging out on the playground to hanging out online.
Repking tells WBBM Newsradio there are two contributing factors: Kids are getting devices at a younger age, and the amount of time they’re spending online has grown exponentially.
“They’ve turned to technology as a way to connect with other people and reduce their isolation.”
But when kids are online, their probability of making a mistake or being vulnerable increases significantly.
“I don’t know if they really see that it’s cyberbullying or that it’s even illegal, false impersonation — I think they’re just bored and they get creative and they’re making poor decisions,” Repking said.
Those poor decisions include a surge in sexting. Teens, even kids, share inappropriate images as a way of furthering a romantic relationship or flirting; some kids think it’s just edgy and exciting.
“What they don’t understand is that once they send that picture, even to someone they deeply trust, they have no control of who sees that and when it will surface again,” she said.
Repking says it’s up to parents and schools to teach young students about internet safety and the consequences that come with their digital footprint.
Related
