The biggest online risk to children is internet predators. The FBI reports that children who use chat rooms have a 100% chance of being contacted by an internet predator! They also report that 6 out of 10 children have received email or instant messages from a perfect stranger and disturbingly, more than half have written back! Social media marketers must think twice before sending a spam mail to an innocent child and take undue advantage.
According to a June survey by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), the time spent online by children is going to drastically increase in these vacations. Parents felt their kids knew how to be safe online, and most limit their kids’ use of the Web during the summer months. More than 85% regularly check up on kids’ digital activities, mostly on desktop and laptop computers. Child mobile ownership is also up, and teens are using phones increasingly to surf the mobile Web in addition to their usual texting and talking activities. Ipsos OTX MediaCT found that kids have also increased multitasking skills, almost a third of the kids are online and watch TV together.
The growing concern is kids sharing more and more personal details. Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that as teens have become bigger users of social networks and other similar sites they have begun posting more personal information to the Web. Between 2007 and 2010 teens became more likely to publish the city they live in and the name of their school and more than three times as many teens have put their mobile number online.
With regard to all these Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has recently passed many safety acts for kids. Marketers will have to tread lightly when dealing with minors, both because of existing regulations and the possibility of new ones. As newer channels like mobile and social networking become increasingly important destinations for kids and teens, effective self-regulation could head off some of the possible restrictions strict legislation or rule-making could bring.
