Illinois Attorney General released annual Safe Shopping Guide just in time for the holiday shopping season.
Illinois Attorney General released annual Safe Shopping Guide just in time for the holiday shopping season. Underlining a number of safety guidelines related to toys, products targeting children and common household items, the guide is a useful resource for practicing safe shopping.
The Safe Shopping Guide also lists a number of items recalled in 2015 and explains the reasons behind the recalls. In addition, it offers parents a step-by-step map of how to approach internet safety related to their children’s online activity and their devices.
As the Illinois Attorney General released annual Safe Shopping Guide, it also brought powerful arguments on the need to monitor children’s online activity. As for the products recalled over the past year, the guide contains approximately 100 images exhibiting the specifically hazardous components.
How to keep our children safe without them perceiving parental monitoring as an intrusion? The Safe Shopping Guideline, as well as the Attorney General’s speech made a few valuable points. In a highly interconnected, technological world, it is children who know how to operate devices like tablets, smartphones, consoles and laptops from the earliest of ages. It is also children who are most vulnerable to online threats. That isn’t to say their access to devices or the internet should be limited.
Quite to the contrary. Growing tech-savvy is a must in our modern world. However, keeping children safe requires building confidence. Let your child know they can come up to you with any problem experienced online. From bullying to sexual innuendo, the online environment has its niche for every malicious behavior. Attorney General Madigan stated:
“While there are many benefits to our kids using technology, there are pitfalls and dangers every parent should be aware of. Luckily, implementing a few rules and practices can promote safe and positive online experiences for our children”.
The gap between perceptions has been illustrated recently. 91 percent of parents are confident that they know about their children’s online activity or smartphone activity. On the other hand, only 21 percent of children and teenagers responded positively when asked if their parents know about their online activity.
At the same time, 93 percent of parents have rules regarding internet use. While this is a first step, these don’t include monitoring their children’s online activity. Building confidence, explaining the rules of online behavior and not threatening children with taking away their devices are three of the advices featuring in the Safe Shopping Guide.
Photo Credits: Wikimedia
