The Danger of Showing Too Much on the Internet

Photos and more photos making faces and mouths in a bikini on the beach or with cleavage showing. Clicks of beer-fueled parties and posts full of profanity and jokes that should only be said between real-world friends. Your teenagers don’t even realize it, but they may be exposing themselves too much – and in a negative way – on the internet. This type of attitude can harm them when looking for a job or even put them in dangerous situations, as happens when the photos end up on prostitution websites or in the hands of pedophiles. Keeping track of what young people are posting daily and talking about the risks of exaggerated (or careless) exposure is one of the great current tasks of fathers and mothers.

The Internet is a square!

It is naive to believe that there is security just because the girl’s profile on Facebook can only be viewed by friends and friends of friends. From the moment that information or a photo lands on the net, control over it is completely lost. “The internet is a great public square. Everything you say or show on it spreads quickly and can reach the ears of people you don’t know. Like every square, it is full of wonderful people, but also of malicious people”, warns Rodrigo Nejm, a psychologist at the NGO SaferNet.

Therefore, care needs to be redoubled. There is dialogue to make our children understand that they need to be responsible for their own steps in life – and that this care also extends to everything they do (and show) in the virtual world.

Leaking intimate photos: yes, teenagers are also at risk

The girl and the boy photograph themselves in sensual poses and share this material with each other as part of a little game of seduction. Months later, the relationship ends and what was intimate ends up being published for anyone who wants to see it. The case is more common than you might think and serious enough to cause embarrassment for the rest of your life. There is no safe way to share intimate things over the internet: from the moment the teenager sends that content, even by email or cell phone message, he definitely loses control over the material.

My son was a victim of evil people, what now?

· It is impossible to completely erase an intimate photo that was leaked on the internet, but it is possible to reduce the damage: print all the pages you find with the images, write down the internet address and send a registered letter to the company that hosts the website requesting the removal of the contents. If you want to go to court, go to a notary with the printed copies of the pages, the addresses, and ask the notary officer to authenticate that content. Then go to a police station and file a police report.

· If the image ended up on an erotic content site, it is also recommended to register a police report following the steps above. Police stations specializing in cybercrime are better prepared to deal with this type of complaint. On the SaferNet website (www.safernet.org.br), there is a list with the addresses of these police stations, spread across 11 states in the country.

· The same procedure can be followed if someone uses a photo of your child to ridicule him on the internet (drawing horns, distorting the body, changing the background or doing anything that makes it embarrassing, a real virtual bullying). Was the offense serious in writing? Act in the same way.

specialized support

SaferNet, a Brazilian NGO that defends human rights on the internet, offers a 100% free service to guide victims of online harassment.

Visit: www.safernet.org.br

Those who offend must answer in court!

Secrecy on the Internet is an illusion: through the IP, a number that is registered every time someone browses the web, it is easy to discover the identity of the person who posted something. Tell your kids to be careful what they post. If they offend someone, through images or text, they may have to respond in court.

stains on resume

Many companies scour social networks to check the profile of candidates for a vacancy. Imagine the harm it can cause to the image of a young person if he appears on the internet showing his butt after taking one and another or posting prejudiced messages. Girls flaunting their bodies in sensual poses can also be misunderstood. What would be an innocent joke between friends can become a reason for a negative evaluation in the future.

Source: Rodrigo Nejm, psychologist at the NGO Safernet and specialist in Internet security; Flávia Helena Gonçalves Teixeira, Prosecutor of Justice for Children and Youth; Data from the 2012 Tic Kids Online Survey, by the Center for Studies on Information and Communication Technology.