by AJ McCreary, PICurrent Assistant Producer
Yesterday’s post was an overview of talking to your teens about technology. Today’s post is more specifically dealing with Internet and social networking safety.
Courtesy of Maebmij
The internet is a wonderful tool, a wealth or information and resources. At the same time it can be a dark and dangerous place. Especially for inexperienced teens.
When talking to your teen, it is important to listen to them. Don’t be naive about your child’s knowledge of technology, or worse, assume your teen knows exactly what is right or wrong as far as using technology.
Teenagers are impulsive, and with the advances in technology, they can do something without really thinking about the consequences.
- Once something has been said or done online, you cannot take it back
- Nothing online is private
- Though your online actions feel anonymous, everything is traceable
Banning your teen from the Internet or social networking sites is not realistic. But rules and boundaries are a must!
A few things you can do to help protect your teen:
- Educate yourself; do not rely on your child to “inform you” or clue you in on what they are doing
- Talk to your kids about technology, privacy and safety.
- Establish rules, and stick to them.
Some recommended rules:
- Be friend your teen on social networking sites
- Know your teen’s login names and passwords: doesn’t mean you will ever use it, but it will allow you to check up on them if needed
- Keep the computer in communal area, like the kitchen or living room
- Limit the amount of time spent online
- Put a filter on your computer so adult content is unavailable
Come back tomorrow for more on: Teens and Cell Phones.
We are living in an unprecedented social experiment.
Never so much technology has been available to everyone.
From a very young age, children start with a computer connected to the Internet then graduate very quickly in the name of parent security with mobile phones, they are the new generation of connected kids.
For these kids social interactivity is happening through emails, SMS and of course what it is called “Social” sites with the likes of Facebook and others.
Didier, thanks for your readership and comment. You are right technology is available to virtually everyone these days, and kids are being exposed to it at such an early age. While the technology is great it is so important that parents, guardians, and teachers monitor what our youth are expose to and doing online! Thanks again!