An everchanging world: Longford library hosts smartphone safety seminar

Longford County Council STEM officer Siobhan Grealy presented a seminar in the Longford Library on October 22, from 7pm.
The talk, which was about internet safety for a child’s first smartphone, tackled many issues such as downloading apps, communicating, a digital footprint and artificial intelligence.

With a constant reminder that technology is constantly evolving, the seminar was hosted before parents and guardians who wanted to learn more about how and when to give a child a phone. Also speaking at the event was Sgt James Rowan, who was added to the informative presentation.

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Accompanied by a slideshow presentation illustrating the key concepts, Siobhan Grealy supplied advice rather than rules.
“I’m not going to tell you what’s right but give a few tools and resources,” she said in her introduction.

Saying that her role is to support, she first addressed the child’s readiness, which has no determined answer as one twelve-year-old might be ready, whereas another may not have the responsibility to tackle the unsupervised web. Emphasising that parents and guardians are the best judges of their own child, emotional maturity was the main factor here.

Siobhan compared it to a whole new world that is much different to letting a child go to school. One is surveilled to be addressed if anything is wrong, whereas the internet is much more expansive.

“There’s no teacher there to check,” she said. “Online safety is about how to behave, how to be treated and how to be safe.”

Following this, she advised on having a digital talk for parents to have with their children on how to be safe. One of the main focuses was how children needed to know that there is traceability to everything. Further suggestions included telling them about not leaving a negative footprint, as everyone has feelings. Otherwise, this could lead to cyberbullying.

“It’s a minefield,” she said about apps. “I advise you to look at parental controls and age-appropriate apps. These apps are amazing, with great benefits to have communication with friends, as well as entertainment.

“Ask your kids about downloaded apps and know their passwords. It shouldn’t be a hard ask.”

Siobhan explained how AI is everywhere through voice recognition, predictive texts and how it runs on algorithms. She warned that things can be thrown at children that parents and guardians may not want them to see, hence why parental controls are vital.

Finally, Siobhan brought up misinformation and the importance of critical thinking, to not rely on AI and actively research, question and validate so that children can find an accurate conclusion.

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Afterwards, there was a small Q & A session with the audience over anything that they wanted clarified further.

The latter part of the evening was Sgt James Rowan giving further advice and how to tackle any dangers that may occur when a child is online. He supplied plenty of informative resources for parents and guardians if they needed to seek help for their child.