Expert Psychologist Hande Nacar Baş warned parents about the recent proliferation of online harassment and blackmail groups on social media and said, “Family bond is very important. Organizations and groups on social media promise trust to children first. If the family bond is broken, the child turns to the virtual world,” he warned.
Online harassment and blackmail groups, which have been on the agenda recently, have started to proliferate on social media applications. Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç announced that an investigation had been launched into groups alleged to have committed violence, blackmail and sexual assaults against children and women on the Discord application, and then access to the instant messaging and social networking application Discord was blocked.
New apps proliferate
However, after the access block, most users turned to other apps. Experts, on the other hand, said that parents have a great duty.
“We must ensure our child's safety”
Expert Psychologist Hande Nacar Baş from Onma Psychology made statements to İhlas News Agency. Psychologist Baş said, “The first responsibility of the family is to ensure the safety of the child. This is not only on social media, but also in the outside world. We can control the outside world to a certain extent. We know who they play with on the street. But the part I don't realize is who he meets on social media. It is very valuable for us to ensure security there.”
“Family ties are very important”
Emphasizing that strong family relationships are very important in the child's life, Psychologist Baş said, “If the child's relationship with the family is broken, he tries to provide this relationship from the outside world. Especially the organizations and groups on social media, which have been on the agenda recently, first promise trust to children. After receiving that trust, if there is a broken relationship in the family, the child tries to make friends with those people. If the family is too authoritarian or too permissive, we see that bonding problems increase. If there is a bond between the mother and father, the child seeks support from the family in times of danger. If they cannot find this bond, the child falls deeper into this swamp.”
Explaining that families should pay attention to the internet sites used by children, Expert Psychologist Hande Nacar Baş said the following:
“It is very important that the family does not get angry at the child's feedback but stands by him/her in a supportive way. The child can make mistakes. We can also make mistakes, but it is very important for children to know that the family will stand by them in case of a mistake. It is also very important for the family to know which websites the child uses. Here, it is necessary to limit which websites children can use and how much they can use them. It is necessary to teach children how to use personal data, which photos can and cannot be shared. Currently, most websites have parental control tools. We are experiencing this problem due to the lack of these parental control tools on the sites that are on the agenda. But the most important thing is children's relationship with their families. If the child has established a healthy relationship with his/her family, if he/she can inform his/her family in case of a problem, the child will ask for help from his/her family when in doubt.”
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