The Dangers of live streaming
Live streaming has become the new trend in Social Media with the new apps that have come out like Meerkat, Periscope and Blab.
While doing some research on periscope these holidays I have stumbled upon live streams that have had children on them. The youngest I have discovered is an New Zealand youth aged 10.
While these can be a safe way to chat and touch base with people – Periscope can be dangerous.
One incident that happened yesterday was a young girl in my area jumping on. I was shocked to see she had tagged her location sharing where she lived. I was then further shocked that men from around the world were talking to her and engaging in conversation NO 13 year old should be in.
While she laughed and joked about their comments I was incredibly concerned what these men were saying. Encouraging her to take her clothes off and so forth.
Other concerns was a ten year old showing his house – Talking about his parents and how they were out and giving away far too much information about where he lives.
This puts a new element on keeping our youth safe when they are so eager to jump online and share their world with others.
They instantly feel they are untouchable because they are behind a screen but it is further from the truth. I was able to locate the girl in yesterdays broadcast and visited her and her parents to let them know how dangerous it was. If I could find her so could anyone else, all because she gave away too much information online.
Her parents while grateful were incredibly upset and had no idea that this app was on her phone or what it did.
Which asks the question how do we keep track of what our youth are putting on their phones and how we need to educate them on really being careful and safe online.
Periscope can be incredibly dangerous because you cant screen who is seeing you – anyone can jump in at any age and its not just dangerous for youth, there is a huge uptake of bullying and trolling on the app as well. I have seen one individual on one broadcast being told to “Go kill yourself, do the world a favour” This is truly the bad side of Social Media, live streaming that we need to take seriously because for someone who may be fragile or not coping, could have devastating results.
Things to think about
- Educate your children about the dangers of Live Streaming
- Dont Tag your location
- Dont give your name, address or school
- If you think the comments on the your Live stream are inappropriate, shut it down.
- Check your children’s phones for the apps.
