THE PARENTING BIZ
A Quick Lesson In Social Media For Families C
oinciding with our cover story on social media for businesses, we now turn our attention to kids and online safety. Research shows that many children as young as six have access to smartphones or tablets. So, be prepared to talk with your child before they are on social media or near three key moments in their life (see below). What follows are three separate articles that offer helpful tips on getting the conversation started between you and your children about technology in their young life, creating a family agreement and understanding how your teen uses Instagram.
Three Teachable Moments Every Parent Should Seize By Stephen Balkam* We talk a lot about talking with your kids about being safe online. It is, after all, part of good digital parenting. Talk early and often about safety, privacy, being secure and behaving responsibly online. It’s not like the birds and the bees talk — one time and done. Ideally, it’s an ongoing conversation from two to 18 about an ever-widening array of issues, concerns, opportunities and rewards. Of course, parents are busy and sometimes we miss opportunities to talk with our kids about a whole host of things. Or we just don’t have enough information or feel awkward about bringing up topics that our tech-savvy kids will simply roll their eyes over. But, if there were just three key moments in your child’s life that you absolutely should not miss, they would be the following. 1. Your Child’s First Phone Kids are getting their first phone at younger ages than ever before. What used
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is reasonable and what kinds of content or behaviour he/she feels is inappropriate. Try and find the right balance between laying down the law and empowering and trusting your child to use his/her phone the right way.
In the digital world we live in you are guaranteed to see kids on their phones everywhere you go, checking out the latest posts, tweets and more. When a child becomes a teenager he/she can legally set up a social media account. As soon as they are old enough to join Facebook and other social media, it’s a good time for a parental chat about safe sharing, privacy and security.
to be a rite of passage for freshmen in high school, cell phones are being given to middle schoolers (grades 6 to 8) and even elementary school-aged kids, in huge numbers. According to one recent survey, a majority of 10 and 11 year olds had phones, and in the UK, a staggering one out of 10, five year olds were given their first phones. In affluent families, there is also a tendency to hand down devices to the kids as mom or dad upgrade to the latest iPhone or Samsung. Needless to say, giving your child a phone, particularly a smart phone, is a big privilege and one that comes with a number of responsibilities. To help your kid become a smart user, make sure to sit down with him or her and set the ground rules, be clear what sanctions there may be and set sensible time limits. The most common limits include no phone during meals, homework or late at night. You can always download a ready-made contract to make the conversation go easier. It’s also a good idea to engage your child in the rule setting by asking what she/he thinks
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2. Turning 13 Becoming a teenager is, of course, a big milestone in any adolescent’s life, but the ubiquity of social media sites has made this age particularly significant. Facebook, Twitter and most other leading platforms insist on users being 13 and even provide specific safety controls for these younger users. Before you launch your child onto the world of Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr (and apps you’ve never heard of!), it would be wise to sit him/her down and talk about what they might encounter, what is appropriate behaviour and how to report a problem when things go wrong. You may need to do some homework before you have this chat. There are plenty of videos and tip sheets on all the major social media sites and, if in doubt, just search whatever questions you may have. There’s probably a YouTube video on the very issue you have. 3. Getting A Driver’s Licence Another key moment to sit down and talk with your teen is the day before they apply for their first driver’s licence. The topic of discussion is, naturally, the dangers of texting while driving. This talk might also expand into a broader chat about how technology in general, and hand held devices in particular, can lead to distraction and other attention problems — not just in a car, but also in school, in social situations and life in general. Talk about what it’s like to just switch off and to being present in the world. It goes without saying that your teen will pay much more attention to what you do than what you say. If you are constantly
