8 year old & Internet use.

fathead82

My 8 year old nephew told me today that someone commented on one of his videos on YouTube & called him a stupid f***er. I asked him what his mam or dad said about that & he told me that they didn't know about it. He seems to have numerous online accounts for blogging (iv no idea what that is!), YouTube, different games where he talks to people while playing them. His parents don't monitor his Internet use & he has his own tablet.
He's very immature for his age but is also very intelligent & can read faster than I can! We are very close & i want him to feel like he can tell me anything, I don't want to break his trust by telling his parents about it but I'm also worried about his safety on the Internet.
Should I tell them? I know he will be in a lot of trouble if I do.

SouthernBelle

He's 8. Of course you should tell them!

meeeeh

Yes. I would most certainly want to know. I am not exactly parent of the year but in my opinion kid that age should not have an account and definitely shouldn't access internet unsupervised.

purple_rose

Maybe people don't know he's a kid. You have to be 13 years of age to use the youtube services.

Tell his parents if you're concerned.

beechwood55

Why would he be in trouble? His parents have given him a tablet and unfettered access to the Internet. It's not the child's fault if he gets himself into sticky situations.
Are his parents exceptionally stupid that they have no interest or concern with what he what he is doing?

shesty

Intelligence and reading skills have absolutely zero to do with it.
He's 8.
Yes you should have a word in his parent's ear. That said, they need to work on their own common sense levels a bit. There's no way an 8 year old should be posting videos to YouTube, never mind having online accounts, blogging or any other stuff, with no supervision.
And then these people wonder why they have problems with their teens.:eek:

Chuchote

fathead82 wrote: »

My 8 year old nephew (snip) seems to have numerous online accounts for blogging (iv no idea what that is!), YouTube, different games where he talks to people while playing them. His parents don't monitor his Internet use & he has his own tablet.
Should I tell them? I know he will be in a lot of trouble if I do.

:eek:

I think you should carefully work out how you approach this so that his parents don't explode, but take intelligent and calm action on it.

Of course an eight-year-old is too young to be online in this way.

fathead82

shesty wrote: »

Intelligence and reading skills have absolutely zero to do with it.
He's 8.
Yes you should have a word in his parent's ear. That said, they need to work on their own common sense levels a bit. There's no way an 8 year old should be posting videos to YouTube, never mind having online accounts, blogging or any other stuff, with no supervision.
And then these people wonder why they have problems with their teens.:eek:

Intelligence & reading skills have a lot to do with it when he's able to set up accounts & type/upload whatever he wants to.

Thanks for the replies, I'll have a word with them during the week. They are very good parents & it's easy to judge them or brand them "exceptionally stupid" on the information I have given. they have a lot going on at the moment.

meeeeh

I have an eight years old. He might not to be any smarter than any other kid his age but he most certainly isn't allowed to open an account in his name or to upload or post anything online.

Kids might be smart for their age but that still doesn't mean they are emotionally mature enough and resilient enough to deal with strangers online. It's irresponsible for the parents to not monitor his internet use. A lecture might not be received in good spirit but pointing them to different parental control apps would be helpful. No matter how smart the kid is you are still in position of responsible adult and not telling the parents would be very irresponsible and putting child in danger.

beechwood55

They may have a lot going on but that does not abdicate them from their responsibilities to their young child. He is not safe on the Internet without adult supervision. Are you 100% sure for example that he has not been in contact with someone who may be grooming him?. Can you say for certain that he has not seen photographs or video of a sexual nature? Do you think you would know if he has sent a photograph of himself to a friendly person who he has spoken to online?

soc

OMG that is too young to be on YouTube.... have you seen some of the obscene stuff that can come up in search results there?? Our 7 yo can only watch YouTube Kids on the iPad, and Safari has been locked down to not allow adult content and block youtube website altogether. You must certainly tell the parents, and he certainly doesn't need a youtube channel at that age.

As for tablet, we've restrictions on so no apps can be installed (we can then ensure that no 'chat' enabled apps are installed without our knowing). Also if apps have any ability to chat - we go through the settings and disable chat completely.

fathead82

beechwood55 wrote: »

They may have a lot going on but that does not abdicate them from their responsibilities to their young child. He is not safe on the Internet without adult supervision. Are you 100% sure for example that he has not been in contact with someone who may be grooming him?. Can you say for certain that he has not seen photographs or video of a sexual nature? Do you think you would know if he has sent a photograph of himself to a friendly person who he has spoken to online?

I am not his parent so no, I cant be 100% sure. I had a chat with him today about the dangers of the internet & people pretending to be children can often be adults who are bad people. He assured me that he never got a message from strangers, then he voluntarily removed his videos (harmless videos of his dog) from youtube & he changed his user name, which was his real name before. Tomorrow I'll work on getting him to delete the account & any other accounts he has.

Boaty

You mentioned how he talks to others on games that he plays, is it over voice or by text?

fathead82

Boaty wrote: »

You mentioned how he talks to others on games that he plays, is it over voice or by text?

It's voice. He plays roblox, minecraft & pokemon games but from what iv seen today, I think he has 2 apps open at once & is on a video call to the same 3 friends(not all 3 at once, only one at a time) while they are all playing the same game.I could be wrong though.

Boaty

fathead82 wrote: »

It's voice. He plays roblox, minecraft & pokemon games but from what iv seen today, I think he has 2 apps open at once & is on a video call to the same 3 friends(not all 3 at once, only one at a time) while they are all playing the same game.I could be wrong though.

I don't think there's a capacity to talk over voice on the games, so I assume that the 3 friends are actual friends that he knows from school?
The Roblox game describes itself as the "largest social platform for play" doesn't sound like a safe game for an 8 year old, I could be wrong tho.
Minecraft is harmless and could benefit his creative mind.

fathead82

Boaty wrote: »

I don't think there's a capacity to talk over voice on the games, so I assume that the 3 friends are actual friends that he knows from school?
The Roblox game describes itself as the "largest social platform for play" doesn't sound like a safe game for an 8 year old, I could be wrong tho.
Minecraft is harmless and could benefit his creative mind.

Yeah,it's 2 friends from school & a cousin. I just assumed that roblox was safe but I'll have a Google & see what comes up.

mordeith

Boaty wrote: »

Minecraft is harmless and could benefit his creative mind.

You have to watch out for multiplayer though. The chat on some of the servers is definitely not for kids

Chuchote

It's really time to bring the little lad's parents in on this - in a calm way. Maybe take them out for a meal so they can't run in to the kid straight away and overreact, and are more likely to set up a strategy?

shesty

fathead82 wrote: »

Intelligence & reading skills have a lot to do with it when he's able to set up accounts & type/upload whatever he wants to.

Thanks for the replies, I'll have a word with them during the week. They are very good parents & it's easy to judge them or brand them "exceptionally stupid" on the information I have given. they have a lot going on at the moment.

What I meant was that intelligence and good reading skills doesn't make it ok for him to be doing this.And certainly not doing it unsupervised.