Ask any parent whose child is in the K-12 educational system about their child’s use of technology and you will often encounter one emotion: worry. Children today are constantly using online tools to complete coursework and communicate with their peers. Social media platforms have opened a near continuous stream of private communication. These can be wonderful tools when used appropriately, but without proper monitoring students can face some dire outcomes.
Attacks on Our Children
Cyberbullying is a recent phenomenon that has had a sweeping effect on the youth of today. Once upon a time, if a student was exposed to bullying behavior at school, home was a safe haven. Now, bullies can harass and demean students around the clock under the guise of an anonymous profile. Parents may have no idea their child is being exposed to these harmful attacks. Students, in fear of having their beloved devices confiscated, would rather suffer in silence.
The outcomes of these private technological lives can be devastating. One need only take a quick search engine spin with the term “cyberbullying suicides” to find hundreds of articles like this one. Even worse, technology seems to be outpacing laws so that those who bully children to the point of self harm often avoid repercussions.
The Solution
What can parents and schools do to stop this epidemic of technological warfare? The answer lies in emotionally intelligent technology. While a myriad of programs exist to limit searches and block sites, there have been few solutions to the problem of harmful communications via messaging and social media applications. Parents have had the added responsibility of monitoring their child’s accounts manually across all devices.
One company is looking to change this with cloud-based software that will allow parents and schools to work together and ensure school-issued devices are not used to send or receive harmful messages.
Securly‘s latest software allows parents to receive reports on program and online usage, which will ensure that homework time is productive time. Beyond this, the software monitors the language that is read or sent from each device, whether at home or at school. This feature will flag messages with bullying language, and immediately send an alert to the monitor’s email if there is any indication that a student intends to commit self harm.
As technology use continues to rise in youth culture and education, it will be important to continue to innovate and expand on software that is not only practically sound, but also emotionally intelligent. Welcome to the future.
For more on how you can use Securly to better protect your students, please contact Michael Scamardella at sales@filmar.com.
Written by Megan Payton
Online Writing & Development Specialist
www.filmar.com
