What all parent should know to ensure their children’s safety from cyber attacks

With the rise of online education in these testing times, the internet is now a necessity for all of us. Due to this reason kids spend the major hours of the day in front of the blue screen. Although the internet is providing vital help in these hard circumstances, it has even triggered certain dangers such as cyber bullying especially amongst the kids. However, as a parent it is crucial to know every bit of this problem to be alert and protect your kids more efficiently. Hence below are some of the forms and methods of cyber attacks, you should know to ensure your child’s security.

Harassment on social media is also classified as cyberbullying. It's the worst and the most harmful thing on the internet because there's no way to get away from it, while it typically has a negative impact on a child's mental condition. Even if parents assist their child in blocking an abuser, harassment may continue since a bully or group of bullies can simply utilise multiple identities to contact their victim. Many attackers utilise the internet to torment their victims and plan out a variety of strategies to reach their victim and even convince others to participate in cyberbullying. Such cruel people can not only send unpleasant emails or direct messages to their victims, but they can also use their social media profiles to orchestrate personal attacks on them, allowing the harassment to spread far and wide.

You might not find this as too severe but such an exclusion can adversely impact your child by making him/her feel more alone. Imagine a situation where a related person tags multiple individuals in a post or includes them in a conversation, but leaves the victim i.e your child out on purpose, your child would definitely get hurt and feel unimportant. However in contrast this can occur naturally if your child doesn't have access to a smartphone or isn't allowed to use a specific social media platform, it's not always the case.

In recent times this situation has become way too rampant where a fraudster hacks or logs into someone else’s social id to ask for money from the connected contacts. However this too can give rise to bullying when they utilise the available social profile to upload improper stuff or send fraudulent messages in the name of the other person or victim. Depending on the nature of the information, it can cause major problems and potentially ruin a teen's personal and professional reputation, particularly problematic for teenagers as they prepare for college or employment where harmful material could jeopardise their acceptance.

Unlike adults who have immuned themselves from this trolling disease, children are still sensitive towards it. Most children utilise social media in order to see the audience's or friends’ response on their project, pictures or something else without considering the consequences such as trolling. When attackers troll a minor, then somehow provoke the victim to respond more and ultimately trap them into the vicious cycle of online bullying.

Many times attackers reveal that they "know" your child's secrets, to set a victim for a scam or even physical damage. While if the child disagrees to follow the attackers instructions, the attacker can virtually bully the child by using personal information to disgrace or humiliate them publicly. To highlight, abusers mostly mask themselves in order to gain trust, create drama between others, or simply bully without disclosing their genuine identity. In many cases, the masked bully is a close friend of the victim and hides their true identity for this reason.

This is one of the most dangerous types of cyberbullying, and if not identified and halted quickly, it can lead to abduction or serious assault. This is why it's critical for parents to keep a watchful eye on their children's internet activities and track their whereabouts at all times. While cyberstalking can involve actual tracking in order for a tyrant to make direct violence against their victim, it is more commonly seen as a grownup following a child in place to deal with them for sexual purposes.