SOCIAL MEDIA AND OUR CHILDREN

As a parent, you wouldn’t unlock the door to your house and have signs pointing to your teenage daughter’s open bedroom saying – all strangers welcome. Yet, that may be what is happening with the majority of our teenagers via their phones and social media. As parents, do we really know what our kids are being exposed to online and on their phones? Probably not.

Recent studies show that adolescents today average between six to eight hours per day on social media. That amount of time almost equals two days every week.

Facebook’s founding president, Sean Parker, said it this way, “When Facebook was being developed the objective was: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible? The capacity for so-called “persuasive technology” to influence behavior in this way is connected to the addictive power of the dopamine system – the same system that is already familiar to drug addicts and smokers. Every habit-forming drug, from amphetamines to cocaine, from nicotine to alcohol, affects the dopamine system by dispersing many times more dopamine than usual.”

For most adults, it is easier to see the effects of time lost. Because we have developed self-discipline, it is also easier for us to walk away from the draw of social media and targeted advertising. Children and adolescents, on the other hand, need guidance and boundaries when it comes to setting limits on social media. Without someone teaching and modeling these skills, it is a matter of time before social media use becomes an addiction, where consequences include an inability to focus for long periods of time, poor self-esteem and depression.

Imagine for a moment the entire day that your child is “not present”. He/She is off in a world with no supervision. Do you know what he is doing? Do you know who she is speaking to? Would not knowing these things bother you in the physical world? If left unsupervised, the digital world can be much more dangerous than the physical. This is where children are being exposed to cyberbullying, illegal drugs, explicit images, pornography, and child predators. The FBI estimates that nearly 500,000 online predators pose a threat to children on a daily basis, and children ages 12 to 15 are their primary target. 1 of 25 of those children will be manipulated into physical contact with a predator within a year.

As alarming as those facts are, parents need to understand that the online world is important to their children. Finding a way to balance a child’s need to stay involved with peers, while keeping them safe in a world that many of us don’t understand is a difficult but necessary task. There is no “one size fits all” answer. Throughout February and March, The Fort Dodge Community Foundation is offering Parent Cafes in each of the elementary schools in Fort Dodge for the parents of 4th and 5th grade students. These Cafes will offer an opportunity for parents to talk about how they handle these issues in their own homes, as well as learn about steps to take to ensure their child’s online experiences are healthy and safe, as well as fun.

In addition, on March 28th at 7:00 PM at the Fort Dodge Middle School, the Fort Dodge Community Foundation will be hosting an event for parents and grandparents. Dan Armstrong, a social media expert and speaker from the organization Protect Young Eyes, will be sharing information with families on how to keep their children and grandchildren safe from the dangers and perils of social media and the Internet. This will be an engaging and informative evening that is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact me the Safe Community Coalition office at the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way, 515-573-3178 or email me at jeanette@ fd-foundation.org.