Teens on social media is like letting a ten year old child drive – well almost. The difference is most teens are unsupervised on social media and the ten year old driver wouldn’t do it without an adult in the vehicle.
Ask your teen how many social networks they are on.
My youngest is eleven, she is on four social networks. I know her passwords and check her privacy settings often.
My teen is fourteen and on six. I remind They’re both monitored and they both know it.
Teens are at risk on social media and it is your job to protect, teach and help them.
Here are 7 ways to help your teen on social media
- Create a social media policy setting up rules of good and bad behavior.
- Teach teens to separate facts from drama (there is a lot of drama on social media).
- Talk to your teen every day about what’s up on social media, car rides are great for this. Don’t talk just listen!
- Follow, friend, like and circle them as your social network contact.
- Set a good example yourself on your own profile and posts, tweets or shared content.
- Know your teens privacy settings and take time to check them bi-weekly.
- Learn a neat trick and share it with them such as how to post in English (pirate) or English (upside down) on Facebook.
I’ve heard someone say at a social event that they didn’t want to friend their teen on Facebook because they were afraid the teen would see what they were posting. It was heartbreaking.
I’ve heard many ask well how do you do that? Or the scary “they’ll be mad at me if I friend them” – I think the teen runs that household.
My kids both know that if I see something inappropriate I’ll speak up immediately. My ten year old thinks I know the owner of the social network and can have their account deleted – I let her believe it without saying a word.
Tricks you can use to monitor your teen
- Let your Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandma, close friends and family members your teen is on a social network and ask them to also friend, follow or circle them. Let them know about your social media policy. Tell your teen about your monitoring team.
- Subscribe to your teens updates via text on Facebook read how here: https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=116324615117911 the setting is under notifications.
- Subscribe to their Twitter tweets via text (near the bottom of the page on the linked article) here: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169920-how-to-get-sms-notifications-for-tweets-and-activity#activity-notifications
- Set up a Google alert with your teens nick name and city to email you when Google detects activity.
- Tell your teens friends that you are watching your teen on social media.
- Tell your teens friends parents that you monitor your child on social media and offer to share information with them.
- Set up a free profile with your teens information at https://brandyourself.com/ It’s a free and premium service offering reputation management and alerts for reputation management.
My kids teachers know I monitor my children on social networks and I share tips with them all the time.
What tips do you have? Leave them in the reply comments below.
