MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 12-year-old girl is now safe at home after getting into a car with a man she met online.
A City Watch alert was issued by Memphis police Tuesday before she was found.
It’s bringing attention to what parents need to be vigilant about – monitoring their child’s online activity.
The Center for Cyber Safety and Education found 40% of 4th to 8th graders polled connected or talked with a stranger online.
Of those, 53% gave out their personal phone number.
Also, 11% said they actually met that stranger, some of them going to that stranger's house.
It used to just be chatrooms parents had to worry about. Now, kids have so many other options to connect, such as TikTok, Instagram and Tinder.
“Parents should stay as close and involved as they can with their kids in that digital world and use parental controls where they can," said Detrick Saulter, who works with children in Memphis. "Also, blocking people who make them feel uncomfortable.”
Saulter said there are multiple ways your child can talk to people you may not know.
“When we were growing up, we had pay phones so we had to go stick record in the phone just to use the phone. Nowadays, everything is so online and so digital,” he said.
Saulter works to enrich father and child relationships in Memphis, founding the organization, F.A.T.H.E.R.S. (Focusing Attention Towards Helping Enrich Relationships Spiritually).
“It's just our job," he said. "It's our duty as parents just to monitor and be aware of what's going on and why they're using the phones. A lot of them are on YouTube."
Saulter, a father of three adult children, recommends setting time restrictions on your child’s devices.
“You should have a place in the home where you have a certain time you know it's bedtime it's time to go to sleep," he said. "You should have the phone in the proper place, not in your room.”
Content and web restrictions are available, too.
“You can just go in and adjust the settings based on the phone before you even give it to your child," he said.
It’s also a smart move to teach your kids to not give out private information such as their home address or school name and beware of sharing videos.