Protect Your Child From Being Catfished Online
4 TIPS TO STAY SAFE
No. 2: Reiterate the ‘no sharing personal information online’ rule. In school, many kids learn it’s unsafe to share personal data online, but it may seem safe when they think they’re talking to a friend. Make sure your kids know that under no circumstance, even if they think they know someone, should they ever share their personal information online. No. 3: Know what your kids are doing online. By monitoring your child’s activity, you can better pick up on clues of catfishing, like an excessive amount of messages from one person or messages asking for personal information. Then, you and your child can work together to verify that the person is someone they really know. No. 4: Let your kids know that you’re here to help. Sometimes, when kids realize they’ve been catfished and may have given away personal information, they’re too scared to tell anyone and keep their fear and anxiety inside. Make sure your kids know you’re there to help them, no matter what, and if they’re ever catfished, you can help them stay safe moving forward.
There is a popular show on MTV titled “Catfish,” based on a 2010 documentary under the same name. This show is not about an aquatic species but instead about people entering relationships online with strangers who are not who they pretend to be — a “catfish.” While this show focuses on adults who are victims of catfishing, thousands of teenagers are catfished online every year. Typically, people who catfish teenagers are looking to exploit them or obtain private information for fraud. Whatever the circumstances, catfishing is dangerous, and parents should always be aware of the risks these online personas pose to their teen’s safety. So, here are 4 tips for parents to help prevent their children from falling prey to a pretend online friend. No. 1: Talk to your kids about only accepting the friend requests of someone they know. A good rule of thumb is that if your child has not spoken to the person in real life, do not accept the request. While many social media sites show you how many mutual friends you have with new requests, catfishers purposely use this to their advantage by friending people your child knows in real life to get around this feature. This way, it looks like they might know your child when in reality, they’re using a fake account.
‘IRISH I KNEW THAT SOONER!’
6 Fun Facts About St. Patrick’s Day
That’s not his name. As mentioned earlier, St. Patrick is not his real name! When he became a bishop, Maewyn Succat changed his name to Patrick. He didn’t banish snakes. Legend has it that St. Patrick banished all of the snakes from Ireland. In fact, even some portraits depict him doing so. However, fossil records show that snakes were never present in Ireland around his lifetime. Corned beef and cabbage originated in America. On March 17, everyone loads up on corned beef and cabbage in celebration, but did you know that in Ireland, they ate ham and cabbage, and the corned beef tradition actually began in America? In the 19th century, Irish Americans bought leftover corned beef from ships returning from China. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade happened in America. Many believe that St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in Ireland, but in 1737, the first St. Patrick’s Day parades actually took place in Boston and New York City.
Year after year, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with green shamrocks, leprechauns, pots of gold, and Lucky Charms, but did you know that St. Patrick was actually British? Even more surprising, St. Patrick isn’t even his real name!
Get ready to celebrate the luck of the Irish while impressing others with some fun St. Patrick’s Day trivia.
The man’s British roots run deep. St. Patrick isn’t Irish — he was born in Britain around the end of the fourth century. Legend has it that at 16 years old, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery by Irish raiders. After six years, he was able to escape back to Britain and returned to Ireland much later as a Christian missionary. Ireland named him the country’s patron saint after he passed away. March 17 isn’t St. Patrick’s birthday. Many believe that we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on his birthday, but it’s actually the day he died in 461 A.D.
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