Sleepovers over the years are often in the news for so many reasons. There are plenty of stories being published in various news outlets regarding sleepovers of kids and teens, and something terrible happens. Obviously, sending your kid or teens into someone’s house without knowing who will be there, what kind of people they are, and what sort of environment would be for the child. However, sleepovers are too risky for the youngsters, and they can bring out the worst in other kids and teens. They may become the victim of high-risk behavior in terms of engaging themselves in bullying, sexual abuse, drug abuse, and plenty of other things alike. On the other hand, teens’ sleepovers in the digital age may differ from past incidents due to the advancement of technology, where children can inform their parents in real-time with the use of cell phones and gadgets connected to cyberspace.
Daily Herald published a story
A Nephi teacher and Wrestling coach has been accused and later on charged with sexual abuse after the sleepover at his home. The Coach name was Hadley Christian who has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, news published in Daily Herald. The incident reportedly happened when the 11-year-old accuser had a sleepover with the Christensens’ daughter.
“The Victim child said that his teacher had given her a pill before bedtime because she has had a headache, and his teacher was helping her out, she said in an interview with Utah Division of child and family services. She said, her headache remains the same, but her head starts spinning, and when she woke her teacher was abusing her.
Why Sleepovers are Dangerous for Teens?
There was a time when young tweens and teens think sleepover as a milestone of childhood. However, in recent years, parents have banned their children from spending the night outside of the family house. You can say that it is another case where helicopter parents gone wild or they really scared of the dangers and potentials harms of sleepovers. Yes, indeed sleepovers could be dangerous for teens, tweens and even for the children and here a few of the examples given below.
Sleepovers is the best time for teens to perform some particular hidden curiosities with accordance of the content they have seen online
Peer on Peer Sexual Abuse is Prevailing
It’s been reportedly stated that in one of the reports of the Guardian, “There are 30000 incidents that have been reported of children sexually abusing other young peers, 2625 alleged attacks on schools, and as well as in sleepovers over the last four years. The Data has been released by 38 of the 43 forces in England and Wales, in response to a freedom of information request, where peer-on-peer reported have been shown, “Abuse rose from 4603 in 2013 to 7866 last year -71% increases. The Minors that have committed sexual abuse, one thing was common among all, they have experienced early encounters to pornography and the pocket porn is the latest example of it. Moreover, according to the 2012 publications in the Journal of Natural Science, Biology and Medicine, the experts say when young kids get their eyes on the pornographic content, later on, likely to have a strong desire to engage in such activities. Therefore, most of the kids and teens got sexually abused during sleepovers at friend’s house.
Young minds always try to repeat or execute all the activities that have seen before online, especially pornographic act, according to Journal of Natural Science.
Digital Doorways are Everywhere
Since the cell phone technology has prevailed to the young generation, they seem glued with the cell phone screen. So, screen time is on the rise and young kids and teens and it causes digital dementia among tweens. Moreover, Parents that don’t want their children to spend all the time on the internet and social media apps sleepovers would be very effective for them by pretending to have it for school exams and plenty of others ideas like that. Moreover, Young kids and teens who really want to have fun in terms of sexual activities and drug abuse; they usually do these sorts of unhealthy things under the carpet of sleepovers for some odd reasons.
Social media apps and dating apps are very popular these days young kids and teens when got spare time having sleepovers to get involved with strangers and plan for real-life sexual encounters. In addition sleepover over the years is a fun night for teens and tweens or to execute such activities which they are not allowed at the house. So, peers make plans to dodge their parents for spending the night at a friend’s house on the name of exams. So, digital doorways everywhere enable teens to perform activities which they cannot execute openly in the presence of the parents.
Today, tweens and teens more likely to have sleepovers to execute such activities with the peers that they cannot perform openly: Parents for both sides need to aware of what they really do late night
Today teens don’t wait for enough to know on Monday about someone’s sleepover. Within the presence of digital devices and internet, they used to broadcast whole sleepover activities in terms of photos and videos, messages and streaming nonstop. So, in this situation, teens’ exposure to online predators become imminent in terms of bullies online, stalkers, and sexual predators.
Teen’s Sleepovers in The Digital Age Risk or Protection
Sleepovers of teens and tweens are full of excitement and fun. Dramatically, how to have fun has changed over the years. However, young kids and teens still like to do crazy things, play jokes, and a little bit goof around. No matter what, if they don’t get glued to their cell phones, they can still do things that can put teens into real trouble. Incidents have happened where teens take consent from parents to sleepover at peer’s house, and on the other hand, the particular peer plays the same music with their parents.
Furthermore, they get involved in something to sleep with their random boyfriends for uncommitted sexual activities, drug abuse, and other things alike. At the end of the day, cases have been reported where teens got rapped and even got killed in the name of sleepovers. On the other hand, within the presence of the digital age in terms of cell phones and gadgets connected to the internet, parents can stay updated on what teens are doing and what location they are present at the moment. Let’s discuss how parents can protect teens from fake sleepovers in the name of studies.
Should Parents Stop Teen’s Sleepovers or Do Something Else?
Banning teens from sleepovers is a good idea. Parents should do some homework and should make some ground rules. There are a couple of things that every parent should know about before permitting teens to have a sleepover at peer’s house.
- Parents should know about the peer
- Parents should know about the house location
- Parents should consult with the parents of their child’s peers
- Ask the reason what makes your kids and teens have sleepovers
- Guide your teens about the activities that can really put them in trouble
Parents Should Use Cell Phone Parental Control Apps
Parents can stay updated even before the teens and kids plan a sleepover with the use of TheOneSpy app for digital parenting. Parents can record and listen to teens’ live calls using a secret call recorder. Moreover, teens read text messages sent/received and get to know what they are planning. However, parents can track the GPS location and location history of teens when they are at peer’s house 24/7 to make sure teens are at their friend’s house.
You can use parental monitoring software to listen to the surroundings and get to know what they are really doing at the moment. Moreover, parents can get the logs of social messaging apps in terms of text messages, text conversations, audio and video calls logs, and shared media to the fullest. This is how it would be zero chance for teens to dodge their parents with so-called sleepover.
Sleepovers should not be banned, let your child to learn things on their own, but at the same time keep yourself updated with the use of parental control app for teen’s protection.
