When it comes to cyber-security and awareness, many people are still lagging behind in the possession of their knowledge. A few days ago, I was having a conversation with my boss, and our point of discussion was cyber security and awareness. It is a fact that many people just give their children a smartphone without knowing what's going on in their daily internet lives.
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We all know the dangers of some of the content found online. Especially when it comes to kids and what they consume. The truth is that parents have no control over what they consume but they can regulate it. We are in the 21st century, where technology has improved to the point that parents can supervise their kids' internet use from afar.
I have a friend in the United Kingdom and, her little sister in Nigeria uses a tablet. Things her little sister does—watches and applications—are being monitored just in case she starts going beyond what she is meant to watch, and corrections can be made. Parents can do this on their kid's smartphones, and there is something called Parent Control.
Now, when we are talking about censored content on social platforms, who is responsible for the censorship of the content? The owners of the platform or the parents of the children.
The fact is that the owners of the platform are responsible for the censorship of their platform. Some platforms give free autonomy to their users, meaning they can post whatever they want without anyone banning or holding them responsible. Even if the platform owner tried to censor the content on their platform, they can't be everywhere, especially on platforms that are very big. One thing about platform owners is that, at their early stage of growth, they allow almost every piece of content so their platform can be active and make money, but as time goes on, they begin to regulate the content posted on their platform. A platform like Facebook is a good example.
I believe the owner of the platforms have the responsibility to watch the kind of content that is uploaded on their platform, especially when the required age for registering on their platform is 14 years or younger, but while the owner of the platform regulates what is posted on their platform, the parents hold more responsibility of what their children watch and interact with online.
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I support the fact that parents strictly and rigidly monitor what their kids consume online. I know many people will come for me with the "What about their privacy?"
Anyone in need of privacy are people that we can't consider to be kids anymore but in as much, as the parent feeds them, cloth them, pays their utilities, and other responsibilities they should be handling themselves, then the parent has the right to strictly monitor what they do online so they can correct and put them on the right track. Many people turn out the way they are as adults because there is no one to correct them when they are consuming the wrong things on the internet.
In conclusion.
I believe or I am in agreement with parents watching over the content their kids will watch instead of leaving it in the hands of people(Platform owners) she doesn't know.
Thanks for reading, I believe you learnt something.