Guidebook - 5 ways to solve the problem
- Set up a healthy home environment. Teens who live in a well-adjusted home, have high self-esteem and are active and healthy are less likely to feel pressure. A healthy home also establishes good relationships between parents and children, opening the doors for communication.
- Monitor social media and cellphones. This doesn’t mean parents must check on their teens at all hours. Instead, random phone checks and access to a teen’s social media accounts for occasional inspection are usually enough to make teens nervous about getting caught with any explicit images on their devices.
- Explain the consequences of sexting. Paint a picture about what happens to the teenagers who are sending explicit photos of minors, including jail time. Use recent news stories of perpetrators in your state to illustrate the situation. Having clear, real and shocking consequences in mind can discourage many teens from even participating
- Set limits on social media use. A lot of families have situations or times of a day where cellphones are banned, such as at dinner, bed time, at school, at the workout and also at the job. This does of course depending on what kind of job you have. Another option is to keep phone chargers in the parents’ room so the teen cannot access them once in bed.
- Educate teens on what to do. Parents should teach teenagers what they can do if they receive a sext and how to proceed before they get into trouble. About what teens should do if they ever receive sexts from peers. Parents who remain calm and reasonable are more likely to be approached by a teen than parents who are emotional and judgmental.
Where to seek help
- http://slettmeg.no (Norwegian, English)
Slettmeg.no is a service from Norwegian Centre for Information Security (NorSIS). The aim of the service is to help people who experience privacy violations online.
Slettmeg.no offers advice and guidance to people of all ages who find offending material about themselves on the Internet. Offending material might be photos published without permission, fake profiles on different Internet services, incorrect personal information or harassment.
People who have published this information themselves, but regret it and want this information removed, may also get in touch with slettmeg.no for support.
Slettmeg.no has no mandate to demand anything removed from the Internet. The service is only meant to give advice and guidance on how to act if you want information about yourself on the Internet deleted or corrected.
The website contains informative self-help articles on subjects related to privacy violations online, articles informing about the relevant legal rights on the Internet and contact details for the most important Internet service providers.
Slettmeg.no is, however, more than a web page. People may contact the service by phone, email or contact form. The opening hours are Monday to Thursday from 12 am – 05 pm.
The service was launched in March 2010.