Dangers on the internet

Reading Time: Minutes

Pornography, hate, and violence – how can I protect my child?

The internet offers many opportunities for children but also poses risks. Particularly problematic are content that is not age-appropriate, such as violence, pornography, or extremist messages. Parents often wonder how they can protect their children without stifling their curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

More than half of adolescents have encountered inappropriate content online, including violence or pornographic material. Such experiences can deeply unsettle young people, making it all the more important to recognize dangers early and take adequate preventive measures.

Dangers are:

Adults pretend to be peers to build trust and manipulate children. The goal is often to coerce intimate pictures or personal meetings.

Children can be insulted, excluded, or threatened through social networks, messaging apps, or gaming platforms..
The attacks are public, spread quickly, and are often anonymous.

Children share personal information like addresses, phone numbers, or pictures that can be misused.
Tracking by apps or websites occurs without users’ knowledge.

Access to copyrighted or prohibited content (e.g., illegal downloads, drug sales, or weapon portrayals).

In-app purchases or paid subscriptions can be made without parental knowledge, often through clever design in games (known as "dark patterns").

Content is deliberately displayed to keep children and adolescents on platforms longer (e.g., through endless feeds or "For You" pages).
Dies kann Filterblasen verstärken und einseitige Sichtweisen fördern.This can reinforce filter bubbles and promote one-sided perspectives.

Pressure to compare and beauty ideals on platforms like Instagram or TikTok can negatively impact self-esteem.
Constant availability and notifications lead to stress.

Children are blackmailed after sending intimate pictures or videos. Perpetrators demand further material or money by threatening to publish the content.

Excessive use of social networks, video games, or streaming services can lead to addiction and displace other interests.

Violence: Videos, images, or games with explicit depictions of violence.
Pornography: Access to pornographic sites or unsuitable images and videos.
Hate and Extremism: Content that incites hate, discrimination, or extremist ideology.
Disinformation, “Fake News”: False or manipulated information that can confuse or mislead children.

To ensure your child has positive experiences online, teamwork and know-how are essential! Here are our tips for you:

Technical Protective Measures

Use filtering programs and youth protection software, such as JusProg, to block inappropriate content. Activate parental controls on devices, apps, and streaming services. Create strong, individual passwords together. Keep operating systems and apps updated to close security gaps, and disable unwanted in-app purchases in the app settings.

Help with Problems

Contact counseling services for professional support if needed. Seek help from school psychologists or social workers if issues like cyberbullying arise. Use reporting and blocking features on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or WhatsApp to remove inappropriate content. In severe cases like sextortion or cyberbullying, you may involve the police or lawyers.

Together Against Dangers

Use media together with your child by watching movies, playing games, or exploring the internet. Pay attention to USK and FSK ratings for games and films to choose age-appropriate content. An established method to prevent negative experiences together is a media usage contract. This regulates screen times and allowed content. Use the Teachtoday mobile phone agreement for this purpose.

Set up youth protection settings and use child and youth profiles. Extensive assistance on how to set up protective measures for each device can be found on the BSI security tips site.

Use filtering programs, youth protection apps like JusProg and child-safe browsers. Information on usage can be found at country-specific kid-safe browsers an search sites recommendation pages.

Discuss calmly and openly, clarify questions, and help your child contextualize what they have seen. Use specific helplines in your country as a point of contact. Report the content to the Internet complaint office.

Download infographic

Use our infographic to discuss data security with your child.

Infographic Data source

The digital world is a huge flow of data. But data doesn’t just flow anywhere. It’s collected by online retailers, banks, insurance companies and stat ...

Read less

Download [ 236.36 KB | pdf ]

Teachtoday Toolbox

You can find more exciting offers and materials on this topic in the Teachtoday Toolbox.

Toolbox materials: Topic "Dangers on the internet"

AwareNessi: What's online hate?

Academy: Data security

Academy: Disinformation