This week, AVG Brazil held an event to launch the eBook “Protect our children and young people”. The event brought together experts in the areas of law, psychology and neuroscience, as well as the participation of AVG Technologies’ security evangelist, Tony Anscombe, who is the author of the eBook “One parent to another”, a work that was used as a reference for the launch of the new AVG Brazil eBook.
How to protect your Facebook account from snoopers and hackers
AVG campaign to educate families and protect children and teenagers online (Photo: Disclosure)
During the roundtable discussion on online safety for children and adolescents, one of the topics discussed was the need for parents and guardians to educate themselves virtually. This way, families can keep up with the pace of children and adolescents who, at an increasingly early age, have their data available online and are starting to surf the Internet.
For Mariano Sumrell, marketing director at AVG Brazil, security is not just about tools. There is another, even more important component: behavioral. “We cannot provide security with tools alone. Education is part of this work,” said Sumrell.
Among the risks of careless browsing presented by Sumrell are inadvertent access to inappropriate content, contact with pedophiles, the disclosure of information that may put the Internet user at risk or that may harm their image and future, as well as the risk of having one's identity stolen by hackers that may even generate financial losses.
Guidelines versus legal issues
For the public prosecutor for children and youth in the district of Divinópolis (MG), Carlos José Silva Fortes, prevention is more important than punishment. “Our law is far from being good. In order to avoid applying criminal law, the main thing is prevention. The Internet is part of our lives – everyone should use it, even children, but with supervision and education,” he said.
For prosecutor Carlos Fortes (right), Brazilian law is not good (Photo: Tassia Moretz / TechTudo)
A lawyer specializing in digital law, Patrícia Peck questioned the terms of use of social networks, which could be more entertaining. “The safety instructions seem like a manual, they have no capacity to educate, they are not pedagogical. They are only for the judge to see, and for the judge to see, we are in the incident, in the trauma, and that’s it: the content will be on the Internet forever. The person will have to live with that,” she said.
Peck also defended the idea that it may be more worthwhile to discuss the child's ability to use the Internet under supervision – in a type of co-management of the account opened on social networks by parents and guardians, with prior education – than to address issues regarding the legal age of access established by social networks. “We need to accept technology. The trend is to lower the age of use terms and reinforce that the responsibility for instruction lies not only with the family, but also with the technology provider,” he said.
Educated parents instruct their children
AVG Technologies security evangelist Tony Anscombe has written a book to raise awareness among families so they can pass on what they have learned to their children and protect them from online dangers. The father of a 13-year-old, Tony cited the Instagram as an example of people's overexposure.
While browsing the social network, he noticed that in addition to the photos, it was possible to see the user's full name, the exact time and place where the photos were taken, as well as more photos and places frequented. Noticing this excess of information, Tony advised his son to disable the Instagram feature that informs the location of the photo taken. “This was only possible because of my knowledge,” said Tony.
Tony Anscombe, author of the e-book “Protect our children and young people” (Photo: Tassia Moretz/TechTudo)
“If we don’t educate parents, they won’t pass on what they’ve learned to their children,” added the AVG Technologies evangelist.
The security expert also presented Brazilian statistics on users ofFacebook. The data presented by him reveals that 64% of the users of this social network are between six and nine years old. It is worth remembering that the minimum age required to create a Facebook account is 13, which is determined by law. Browsing this social network if you are under the required age means you are exposed to content and advertisements that may be inappropriate, warns the expert. “This can encourage children to grow up too quickly.”
EBook is free and addresses children and young people's safety on the Internet
The eBook “Protect our children and young people”, by AVG Brazil, is available on the Internet for free download. The publication is inspired by the book “One parent to another”, also by Tony Anscombe.
This is an online safety guide for parents and guardians. It has five chapters and 33 pages where the reader will find research on children's online behavior, as well as the risks that the Internet can present, and also guidelines and practices that parents and guardians can apply to ensure safe browsing on the Internet.
To read or download the complete work of AVG Brazil, access the link.
SOURCE: www.techtudo.com.br