Find a partner through mobile, a dangerous fashion among young people
The new technologies have taken care of many of the tasks that previously had to do to people: cleaning dishes, turn on the heating at certain times and even cook. However, this modern world has also reached other areas that a few years ago would not have been thought of, such as finding partner.
Mobiles have begun to offer applications that try to unite the users who register in them. These tools choose a supposed partner Perfect based on the data that the person who uses them has given. In fact more and more young people use their smartphones for this purpose, a dangerous activity because in the network you never know the identity of the one you are talking to.
Dangers on the internet
The triumph of applications to find a partner among young people has come along with the expansion of phones with an internet connection. More and more minors have one of these devices which offer these tools that allow to connect with other people with the same interests.
Whether through social networks or with specific applications, young people find in their mobile a channel with which to contact other people and engage in conversation. However at this point the same problem occurs as in dodo internet: the anonymity of the other party. A study conducted in 2016 in the United Kingdom revealed that a large part of adolescents were lying about their profile and only one 19% He acknowledged that this description suited reality.
Cyberbullying and grooming
From these dangers are derived other more serious. On the one hand, cyberbullying, there are many people who, to harass their victims, create false profiles to make someone think that they are finding someone special. A form of mockery that takes advantage of the feelings of the deceived person.
On the other hand there is also the risk of grooming, that is, to meet a person of legal age who has lied about your identity to contact a minor. He risks finding someone who has illegal intentions with him, that is, pedophiles. In these cases we must be very attentive to locate them and bring them to the attention of the competent authorities.
Parental control
To avoid this type of situation parents should be aware of what their children do. First of all we must warn of the danger of using the applications to find a partner. You also have to have an eye on social networks, as these can be a channel through which to get in touch with strangers. Here are some techniques to guide the children in these places:
- The privacy of the wall of the social network determined with respect to their parents depends on the age the child has. When the children are older we can not control their conversations and their messages, but it is good to ask them who they are with and who their contacts are. When they are smaller, if it is good to supervise the activity and enter their profile, it may be the best way to avoid a problem that can become more complicated without this measure.
- Put schedules and limits to the use of teenagers from social networks. It is important that parents supervise that they do not connect during study time or at family gathering times such as meals.
- To see your profile, again you have to take into account the adolescent age. Making a profile of your own and being your child's contact is very useful. It is also good to sit next to him when surfing the net and share it with parents.
- It is good to intervene in the activity that the son does in the social networks commenting, asking about it and correcting them. It is good to be aware of the performance of the adolescents and advise them to act in the right way, thus promoting communication between parents and children.
Damián Montero
