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Helping Your Teen be Safe on Social Media

social media safety for teens

About the author: Naomi Broderick is a professional writer who loves being a parent and everything that goes with it. When she’s not having to watch her three children in the front yard she loves to cook and keep updated on the most recent technologies and ways of keeping children safe in the home and the neighborhood.

In our current culture, there are more and more ways that people, especially teens, can connect with one another. We now live in a digital world that is the preferred method of connecting and communicating with others. While today’s teenagers may seem that they are growing up more and more quickly, and seem more digitally savvy than their parents, they are still young. They lack the maturity and life skills to get themselves out of trouble in these new social settings. Helping them to prevent dangerous social interactions in the first place is the ideal thing to do. Here are some tips to help your teen be safe on social media.

Use Privacy Settings

Not only are there worries about having to having to keep your family safe in the real world, but in our current culture there are now worries about having to protect your family and teens online. One of the best ways to do this is to have your teen use the privacy settings on social media sites. Keep your teen’s profile private so that only family and people you know and trust can see photos, important dates such as birthdays, and other information. It would be best if they didn’t put any personal contact information such as phone numbers, home addresses, or other information on their social media sites. Also, make sure that your teen has a strong password that cannot be guessed easily and that they change it fairly regularly (approximately every 3-4 months). Making sure that your teen does not accept any friend requests of people that they do not know will help give you piece of mind knowing that strangers are not able to access your teen’s profile.

Have Open Discussions with Your Teen

There is one thing that any parent has to accept: teens are going to experiment and try new things. But, if you want your teen to be open an honest with you about what they are doing, you need to have an open dialogue with them. Parents need to be ready to actively listen and talk with their teen about what is going on in their life if they want the teen to come to them more often for help and guidance. Help them get over the situation but make sure that they learn from their mistake.

No Compromising Photos or Videos

Help your teen be smart about what they post online. Everything that they post on social media sites can be shared with the entire world and could hurt their integrity. If teens that are underage post sexy or nude photos of themselves not only they could get in trouble but parents as well. The parents are responsible for the original sender and could face jail time and be required to register as a sex offender. Teens could also be asked to leave sports teams, humiliated, or lose future educational opportunities. Talk to your teen about being smart and using good judgment about taking and posting photos, and that they know the serious consequences of what can happen for both them and you if the pictures are inappropriate.

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When Parents Monitor Kids’ Instagram: Too Far, or a Modern Necessity?

monitor kids instagram

We talk about Instagram quite a bit. The photo and now video sharing app is extremely popular and regularly controversial among parental discussions. Even though it’s known as a photo sharing app, the social media platform exemplifies the debate on children’s privacy and need for monitoring services. It’s a safe bet that the new introduction of Instagram Video service will keep the app in the forefront of the family monitoring debate for a while. You may question if monitoring your child’s social media is going too far or a modern necessity? Here’s some information to consider.

Instagram Stats

Instagram averages 100 million active monthly users or more and is the top photo sharing option for teens in the United States. Access to iPod touches, as well as iPhones and iPads and Android devices, have made it accessible to a huge range of teen and young adult users. Current estimates place Instagram at 1000 comments and 8500 likes per second, making the photo sharing app one of the busiest social media networks in the world. Source: http://www.digiday.com/brands/15-stats-brands-should-know-about-instagram/

The flexibility of use and exposure among its users also makes it extremely popular with celebrities increasing it’s likability among our children. The list of celebs who regularly use the app ranges from names like Miley Cyrus to Michelle Obama. In the last year, stars like Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and Justin Beiber have received millions of comments, and hours of real media attention, by posting backstage photos of major events like the concerts and award ceremonies and even personal photos on Instagram.

Kids on Instagram

While Facebook remains popular with adults of all ages, the younger generation of social media users clearly prefers Instagram. Unfortunately through all the fun and connectivity most social media provides, it can also pose a significant risk to unattended kids and teenagers. The most prevalent and often discussed risks are bullying, inappropriate contact with adult content and inappropriate contact with adult users.

The current trend of Instagram beauty pageants encourages teenage girls to post pictures online so the entire Instagram community can rate them. Classmates and thousands of users, including unknown adults, rate these pictures and comment on if the posters are “pretty” or not. It’s a clear example of internet bullying and inappropriate contact with strangers that have no business interacting with a child online.

Even more frightening for many parents is the threat of interaction with strangers that Instagram can present or exposure to photos their kids just aren’t ready to see. Geo-tagging and other photo sharing options lead to some scary realities when it comes to child predators. Our kids may not quite understand how much information they’re actually revealing about themselves with a public Instragram profile and they may not stop to consider that sharing certain things like locations or name of their school with 100 million users isn’t a great idea.

As a modern necessity, MamaBear gives parents the option to monitor their kids’ Instagram and Facebook accounts for worrisome activity giving them an opportunity to discuss and protect their child’s reputation and well being. It saves parents time from scrolling through the fun and innocent photos and presents needed information to parents help keep our kids safe. Using the restricted words feature can inform parents of indications of bullying, hate or inappropriate language. And the follows notification can help parents monitor who their children follow. As always, be sure your children’s account is set to private and keep the conversation going about social media safety. Together we can keep social media the intended fun environment we all enjoy.

Try MamaBear free for Apple devices here and Android devices here.