Are you doing everything you can to protect your kids online? Social media can be a great way for teens to connect, but it can also lead to bullying or illicit behavior.
With so many social media crazes popping up each day, it can be hard for parents to monitor everything they need to. Here’s a guide to the current most popular social media networks of today so you know how to approach each one.
Instagram
Instagram is a popular photo and video posting site that basically acts as an online scrapbook or photo journal. Unfortunately, most photo-posting settings default to posting photos publicly, so you have no way to know who’s looking at those photos.
There are several Instagram monitoring tools for parents to keep track of their child’s account, but if you can start a discussion, try that approach first. Emphasize the importance of avoiding photos that place a child geographically (in front of their high school or with a street sign, for example) to avoid potential stalkers.
Facebook
Many parents are on Facebook, so it’s fairly easy to keep track of your child’s activities on there. If you see a post or photo that sets off some red flags, bring it up to them and have a discussion. Some kids will create second accounts under aliases to avoid parental attention, but if you monitor internet activity on your kid’s smartphone or laptop, you should be able to find the name of the account and keep an eye on it.
You can also use Facebook to find your child’s other social media accounts, since they may cross post from Twitter or Instagram or share links in their profile.
Twitter
Twitter is basically Facebook, if Facebook was restricted to short status updates. Many kids just use Twitter to follow celebrities or gain a small following themselves. Twitter can be a largely anonymous platform, which has it’s ups and downs. Social media monitoring for parents will be a little more difficult since they can’t just search their child’s name, but children are also protected from predators by the relative anonymity. To protect your kids online from Twitter threats, talk to them about the dangers of sharing personal information and encourage them to maintain anonymity.
Keeping up to date on the latest social media trends is a great way to protect your kids online.
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