Cyberbullying, cyber fraud, and phishing are not the only dangers for teens on the web. Maral Aitmagambetova and Yevgeny Khabarov from the Pavlodar Media Literacy House help adolescents find ways to safeguard themselves and their loved ones on social media.
Adiya Akhmer
September 19th, 2023
Generation Z – those who can’t fathom life without the internet – have been aptly called “digital natives.” This term encompasses children, teenagers, and young adults who were practically born with smartphones in their hands. Since their childhood, they have had an online presence thanks to YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and other social media and messaging apps.
A pivotal media literacy skill is their ability to cultivate a secure online environment
As part of Manshuq Media Literacy Lessons project, we spoke with teenagers – excellent representatives of digital natives – to talk about their first encounters with cyberbullying, cyber fraud, and phishing. We then asked experts to advise on how to effectively, and most importantly, safely, deal with such scenarios.
Case 1
“I recently had a girl follow me on Instagram. Her profile picture showed a girl of my age, and her description included details about her age and school. She had several posts on her account with images of dogs. I love dogs. We corresponded for around a month. I told her about my school and my parents. I suggested meeting up after school, but she refused. One day she messaged me that she urgently needed money. She had mentioned that her mom was in the hospital a lot, so I asked my parents to help. The amount was about fifty thousand tenge. I told my dad about it, and he said it was a scam and scolded me. How can one differentiate between a fake account and a genuine one?”
