WINNIPEG -- Tuesday is Safer Internet Day and with that, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection is calling on parents and families to talk to their tweens about the risks associated with live-streaming.
According to Cybertip.ca, which is part of the protection centre, there has been a 57 per cent increase in reports of adults contacting children between the ages of eight and 12 to engage in sexual activities over live-stream.
Catherine Tabak, program manager of Cybertip.ca, said adults are using a variety of apps or games with live-streaming capabilities to target younger children.
"It's easy access to kids of that age group. So really the offending community knows where to go to get in contact with children," said Tabak.
The protection centre is offering tips for parents and guardians of tweens to make sure their kids are safe.
The organization said make sure you talk to your kids about the risks with live-streaming and how screengrabs and video recordings can be taken and used against the kids, help tweens set up privacy settings so they can approve or deny followers, as well as restrict who can look at their content and who can message them, and remove devices from tweens' rooms at night and even disable Wi-Fi to prevent kids from streaming.
Tabak said it is important kids know who they can go to if something goes wrong or someone is making them feel uncomfortable.
If parents are wanting more information on how to keep their kids safe, they can visit protectkidsonline.ca.
- with files from CTV's Jon Hendricks
