Parents need to be aware of what the technology can do -- both good and bad. It all began with computers. The youngsters know a lot about how they work - but they may not be aware that certain dangers lurk behind the screen. Our parents told us "don't talk to strangers."
"The thing that they need to remember is that on line, really, everybody is a stranger and you can't really trust the identity of the person on the other side. That healthy dose of skepticism is really important,” said Ken Newman of Central Pacific Bank.
That skepticism needs to extend to scammers.
"We're seeing the identities of children being stolen and then used to commit fraud, all to the aspects of cyber-stalking or cyber-bullying so things that kids will even do to each other,” said Newman.
Like many high tech innovations, social media can be a blessing or a curse.
"You know on some of these sites, the privacy settings seem to change constantly. And most of them are turned off by default so you're often sharing more things than you expect and kids don't always realize that what goes on line tends to stay on line for a very long period of time,” said Newman.
Newman recommends checking your home computer often for viruses or malware.
He admits, it's a fine line that parents have to walk with their children.
"Reasonable controls, healthy skepticism, but that balance of trust and understanding between each other so that monitoring itself becomes less of an issue,” said Newman.
The smart phones are everywhere - many of them are GPS enabled which means parents know where their kids are.
On the other hand, so does everybody else.
"That could potentially make things like cyber-stalking more of a reality because you know exactly where the kids are at any given point in time so that really needs to be part of the awareness equation as well so again, parents and kids have that conversation together,” said Newman.
If you have a question for our financial experts, email us at dollarsandsense@KHON2.com.
