What Is Cyber Flashing? How to Keep Your Kids Safe from It? 

The digital world is becoming more dangerous than we can ever think of it. The threats to our kids online are expanding and diversifying to the next extent. You can be worried about your child’s personal information being stolen or bullies pressuring them. However, on the other hand, cyber flashing is silently damaging them psychologically. 

It seems like a new term for many parents, but it’s not that new. The term was coined recently to bring everyone’s attention to the drastic threat kids face in this digital age. Focusing on your child’s digital well-being, you must understand cyber flashing, how it happens, the damage it causes, and how to keep your kids safe. 

About Cyber Flashing

For those who do not know, “Cyber flashing is a type of online harassment.” It happens when someone sends unwanted and inappropriate pictures to another person through digital means. It often includes sending explicit images or videos, mostly of the private parts, without the recipient’s consent. 

It can be shocking and disturbing, especially for kids, when they unexpectedly receive any such image or video from a stranger. The act can be one time or repeated to provoke the receiver in responding to messages or content. 

Common Cyber Flashing Practices

If you have not experienced it, it doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist. It’s possible you and your child or teen online have faced cyber flashing, but do not talk about it. Common and regular practices for cyber flashing can occur in several ways. 

AirDrop

Many devices, like iPhones, have a feature called AirDrop. It allows users to share files with nearby devices. Sometimes, people misuse this feature to send explicit images to strangers. Unknowingly, when your device has active Bluetooth, any stranger can easily send any file or media. Cyber flashers are looking for such chances to tease and harass the people around them. They mark, target, and shoot the images. 

Social Media

Social media is one of the integral spots for cyber flashers to target others. They stalk and spy on the users to willingly send them explicit images or videos. Platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook allow users to send private and direct messages. However, the privacy settings help restrict unwanted messages from landing directly in the message box. But, there can be message requests in the inbox, and the flashers use these requests to poke the users. 

Mostly, kids and teens do not have privacy settings enabled in their chats so that they can get the flasher’s messages directly in the inbox. It will be hard for them to avoid such messages in general. But, with your parental guidance and control, it is possible to secure the space.  

Messaging Apps

Apart from social media, messaging apps are another source of cyber flashing. Apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, and even gaming chat features are a source for cyber flashers to target individuals for illicit actions. These apps are mostly intended to connect the people who know each other. However, there are options to send messages to unknowns by just having their number of user names. 

Emails 

For the Gen Z, emails are old school and not so popular. However, these are the actual modes of cyber flashing for many people. A new email in the inbox always triggers kids to open the message and look into it. So, culprits using emails to send flashing images or videos can sometimes target them. 

Cyber Flashing Impacting Your Child’s Psychological Health 

Receiving something disturbing and explicit in the inbox from the stranger is frustrating and concerning on its own. The images or videos the cyber flashers use are not just the images. These provocative actions sometimes invite or groom the kids or teens as well. 

Eventually, it also makes the receiver embarrassed, flustered, and curious. Either the child gets depressed and avoids social connections or falls for curiosity. In both cases, the act is not suitable for your kid. It’s essential to protect your child from these cyberattacks. 

Prevent Cyber Flashing with Digital Parenting

As parents, we want to protect our kids from all kinds of dangers, including those online. Knowing that cyber predation is a serious threat to your child’s digital safety and mental health, it’s essential to adopt the best strategies for saving them. When threats are digital, you need to work on the digital safeguards using digital parenting. 

Parental control apps like FamilyTime offer unlimited tools to safeguard your kids digitally. The app offers you unlimited tools to boost your digital well-being and safety. Here are the significant controls that you can use to save your kids from cyber flashing: 

Social Media Monitoring

Keeping an eye on what your child’s doing online on social media is essential. You may want to acquire their credentials to gain insights, but it’s impossible. For the young kids, it might be possible as you will create a child profile for them, but for the young teens and teens, it’s not a good idea. The kids will have lower self-esteem knowing you do not trust them, which may lead to an altercation. 

But, then, what can you do? Well, FamilyTime has got you covered. You can monitor all their social media chats using the simple monitoring feature. It lets you access their TikTok, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Signal, Twitch, and other chats on social apps. You do not have to argue with them for the credentials or check their phones. Just monitor and meditate whenever it’s essential. Spot any cyber flashing acts in their chat boxes and take appropriate actions. 

Setting Up Privacy

Setting up privacy on your child’s device is essential to protect them from cyber flashing. Here’s how you can help:

• Privacy Settings on Social Media: Ensure your child’s accounts are private. This way, only people they approve can see their posts.
• Disable AirDrop: If your child has an iPhone, you can turn it off or set it to receive files only from contacts.
• Restrict Messaging: Many apps allow you to restrict who can send messages to your child. Use these settings to limit messages to friends and family only.

Watch List Contacts

FamilyTime offers another impressive tool to save your child from cyber flashing: watchlisting contacts. Keep an eye on who contacts your child, your messages, and your call history. Moreover, the shady contacts should be marked down to get immediate alerts about the calls and messages from these contacts. It helps you to be responsive and efficient when saving your kids. 

Bottom Line! 

Cyber flashing is a real and growing threat in our digital world. It’s important to understand what it is and how it happens. By being proactive with digital parenting, we can keep our kids safe. Monitor their social media, set up privacy settings, monitor their contacts, and maintain open communication. Doing these things creates a safer online environment for our children. Remember, the goal is to educate and protect, ensuring our kids can enjoy the benefits of technology without falling prey to its dangers.