Putting mobile technology in children's hands is a great means of enabling education, but it can also be a “treacherous, double-edged sword”.
This is according to Laurence Seberini, director of CellphoneSafety.co.za - an online platform that seeks to assist and educate parents with regards to the potential ills inherent in modern technology.
One of the main concerns parents have regarding their kids and cellphones or tablets, says Seberini, is that of adult content. According to his online poll, over 50% of the parents' concerns relate to pornography, with chat sites being their second biggest concern. Time-wasting and violent games fall into the lower bracket of apprehension.
protection said they deemed safety “very important” when considering buying their child a cellphone.
A parent himself, Seberini says the proliferation of mobile technology, and notably the uptake of Apple's popular iPad and iPhone, prompted him to look into the devices' capabilities to block harmful content. “It can be done,” he says - but many parents are not fully “i-friendly”.
Seberini has put together a simple, step-by-step guide, or “how-to”, for parents who want to stop their children from accessing porn on the iPhone or iPad - and ultimately rest a little easier when leaving their children to their own devices.
“Don't be afraid of technology - embrace it, but at the same time take steps to avoid any unnecessary harm to you or your family,” says Seberini.
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