Keep a close eye on your children’s online activity.
This is the advice that the Immediate Past President of the Barbados Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), Charles Walton, is sending out to parents.
Speaking to The Barbados Advocate after a session on Cyber Security held recently at a Parent- Teacher Association meeting of the Charles F. Broome Primary School, he said during sessions like these they have been advising parents to keep a close eye on what their children do online.
“We have been asking and encouraging parents to monitor their children. Look at the websites that they are visiting, look at their posting patterns, be there when they are online at times, see what they are doing, know what websites they are going to, note the programmes that they are using so that they know what is happening. Be aware of emails popping up or banners popping up all over the screens, the computer running slow. Those are the kinds of things that we want them [parents] to be aware of because they could be indications of untoward activity happening on their devices, which they need to be able to deal with appropriately very early to prevent problems further on down the road.”
Walton stated that this could even be the case for educational websites which the children would use to complete research for homework and other school projects. These websites can also contain links to other more dangerous websites or can have pop ups which the children would click onto, and which would expose them to illicit information such as pornography or violence.
He said that there are certain devices that parents could install on the computers whereby they can monitor the activities of their children online and he suggested that they get one of these devices.
“We know that kids use websites like for educational purposes, but it is very often easy to be able to mimic those websites and get them to be able to download inappropriate devices or apps or get them to go onto inappropriate websites where they can see things like pornography, where they can be exposed to violence.
“They [parents] can download applications and programmes that can run in the background that can again monitor their [children’s] activity; turn on their cameras, turn on the listening devices on those machines and be able to get a little bit more information on what is happening in the household.”