Nowadays, children know about Facebook and Twitter at a very young age. I see many parents make their kids’ accounts when they are just babies. Kids start maintaining their own social media profiles as pre-teens. Posting photos, chatting, sharing and expressing online is a norm for them. This can be a parental control nightmare if you don’t know how to tackle the still ongoing social media craze.
The majority of the kids are on social media today. Where it connects them with the world and opens new dimensions to them, it also holds some risks. According to Bright House, 1 out of 3 online teens experienced this:
- Private information was shared without permission – 15 percent
- Received threats – 13 percent
- Online rumors – 13 percent
- Embarrassing pictures posted without permission – 6 percent
Tumbler, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram are very popular among teens. These sites contain mature content which can easily show on the search page. [pullquote]Teens keep their posts public which means anyone can see their content and comment on them.[/pullquote] They also experience a lot of hate speech and offensive remarks on social media. Instagram, in particular, puts the kids in a competition of receiving maximum likes. They adopt inappropriate ways for it. Unfortunately, some try very hard to fit in the beauty standards and starve themselves. The cyberbullying have shown to be very tormenting for young developing minds and can disturb them for life.
Advice For Parents
It is challenging for parents to bring up responsible and secure kids in this age. Following are a few tips that you can take up:
Discuss
Discussion about these problems and their solutions is important. It is necessary to bring the kids into the loop and tell them about the good and bad aspects of social media sites. Teach them about the privacy ethics and settings.
Stay Updated
Know more about the latest social media trends and apps. Read about their rating and user reviews. This way you will be better able to talk to your kids and decide what is good for them.
Follow Them
Follow or become friends with them on their social media accounts. Keep an eye on what they share, their friends and the activities they take part in. It is a nice way to start a conversation about something questionable.
Set Parental Controls
Just monitoring is not enough. You have to make some rules and also set up some restrictions to avoid extreme consequences.
It is best to use parental control apps for this purpose. With this app you can:
- See their online activity to know what social media platforms they use.
- View their mobile applications.
- Ban mobile apps.
- Set alerts for banned apps.
- Limit their screen time.
Download this app to avail these great features.
Responsible Parenting
Parents’ responsibilities have increased both in the offline and the online world. Socializing through the internet media is the contemporary way. It is best to educate kids about the pros and cons and monitor them with so that they can have the best experience. Get started with parental control apps now and become a responsible, smart parent.
Parental Control – Responsible Parenting
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