As children head back to school it’s often a great time to talk to them about safety. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is asking parents and caregivers to make sure online safety is part of those conversations. NCMEC has seen a 300 percent increase in reports of online enticement over the past three years and with trends like sextortion and the circulation of deepfake nudes posing a threat to children online, preparing kids to face risks online is more important than ever.
To help parents and caregivers make those conversations a little easier, NCMEC recommends including these three topics in your online safety conversations:
Healthy relationships to help kids spot signs of grooming or manipulation (missingkids.org/education/kidsmartz).
Being an upstander to encourage kids to not contribute to the spread of nude or explicit images (missingkids.org/education/back-to-school#onlinesafety).
Safety in the real world (missingkids.org/education/back-to-school#personalsafety).
For info visit missingkids.org/blog/2024/back-to-school-back-to-safety-ncmecs-top-tips.