ORLANDO, Fla. – Wednesday on Breakfast with Bridgett, we take a closer look at recent data that reveals troubling online safety trends for youth.
Bark Technologies just released their 2024 Annual Report which compiled data from 7.9 billion online activities last year.
More than 60% of tweens and more than 75% of teens encounter nudity or sexual content online.
Almost 37% of tweens and almost 60% of teens were involved in situations related to self harm or suicide.
And more than 70% of both groups say they’ve experienced, witnessed or participated in bullying.
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Tatiana Jordan from Bark Technologies says protecting children begins with delaying their exposure as long as possible, keeping open communication with them and utilizing parental control tools. Jordan used Roblox as an example for utilizing parental controls.
“Roblox has built-in parental controls that you can turn on. For example, turning off the ability to chat with strangers and making sure there are filters that filter out more problematic content. Also keep in mind that the Bark phone can monitor Roblox, so if your kids playing on the Bark phone and somebody does somehow figure out how to message them, you’ll get an alert saying, ‘Hey, potential predator, here’s what you need to know.’ It’s not about punishing the kids or removing every form of access from them, but you’ve gotta be in the know,” Jordan said.
Learn more about how to approach online safety topics when you watch the full interview at the top of this story.
For more information about the 2024 Bark Annual Report, click here:
You can also view Projet Young Eyes here.