HOW TO KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE ON SOCIAL MEDIA | SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR PARENTS

admin | August 24, 2020

With social media sites being a huge favorite among children, allowing them to stay in touch with friends over chat, meet new people with similar interests, and share various contents, it’s also important for parents to maintain a vigilant sense of security when it comes to our children’s online presence.
Used suitably, social networks are a great place for young people to demonstrate their talents. Therefore, as a parent, there is a lot you can do to ensure your children’s experience is both safe and fun.
Being the most reliable builder in Kerala, Veegaland Homes has created a set of social media tips for parents, to help you encourage your teen to build up the tools to make social media work for them and navigate the risks and rewards associated with it.

1. Educate yourself

Even though it’s your children’s social media usage that should be carefully monitored, as a parent, it’s important for you to familiarize yourself with the sites and networks out there so that you can figure out which is appropriate and which is not for your child.

Familiarizing yourself with major social media platforms will give you a better understanding of how these services work and potential threats associated with it. You can also consider creating your own profile on these networks for a firsthand experience.

The most popular social networks kids of these days are actively using are Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

2. Establish an age limit

As you are familiarizing yourself with the popular social media networks, you should also take a look at what the required minimum age for each of these sites is. Most social media sites require it’s users to be 13 years or older to create an account.

If you are a parent who currently does not allow your children to use social media, it’s a good idea to let them know from what age onwards they can start using it. This approach can change the equation other than giving them the feeling that it’s never going to happen, which is more likely to cause them to create their own secret profiles.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prevents companies and networks from collecting personal information about children under the age of 13, without their parent’s permission.

3. Guide them

While there are several ways to control your child’s access to social media, talking with them and guiding them properly can help much better and work efficiently for long-term success.

So, instead of setting up restrictions right away upon them, take this as an opportunity to educate them on the various risks and threats associated with the many social media networks of these days.

You can also talk about the sites they are allowed to visit, which apps they can use, and who they can and can’t connect with online. Although you’re letting them know the rules upon their social media use, involving them in the conversation helps them in understanding the importance of these rules.

4. Help set up social media accounts

The easiest and effective way to keep a check on your child’s social media use is to be there from the very beginning. You can let them set up their social media profiles on their own and be beside them in order to explain the complicated aspects associated with it and the terms of service and other policies.

You can also help them configure their account settings, paying particular attention to the privacy settings the networks offer. Making them aware of the importance of keeping their profiles private can be an ideal safety measure.

Following them on the social media networks where they have an account or having their passwords can help you periodically review their usage and protect your child online.

5. Have control over what they install

As an important step to keep your child’s social media use on a check, you can make sure they can’t set up new accounts on these networks on their own. Parental controls come in handy under such situations through which they can prevent their kids from installing new and unknown applications.

Built-in parental controls on smartphones can be made use of if your child is under 13. If your children are over 13 years of age, as your parental control options are limited with these sites giving them the option to take control of their accounts, you can install different software monitor their usage and app installations.

Most of the internet security services offer built-in parental controls in addition to the usual malware protection for the devices. You can use always make use of them as well.

6. Scrutinize the information they share online

With the popularity of social media and the way it has been a part of people’s lives, it’s not uncommon for people to share information about themselves these days. Therefore it’s really important to make your child understand what kinds of information shouldn’t be shared online and the reason behind it.

Although most people share photos and videos with the best of their intentions, with the easiness of usage attached to these networks, things have the possibility to be taken in the wrong way or out of context and such things have long-lasting consequences as well.

Therefore, make them understand to only post contents that present themselves and others in a positive light and to keep a check on the personal information they share on such networks.

7. Set time limits for usage

With the manner in which devices have been a significant part of people’s lives, it can be easy to let social media absorb a lot of your and your child’s time. Setting a social media schedule or time limits on specific applications could help in keeping the online habits in check.

With social media usage having the possibility of negatively affecting sleep, attention, and learning and also the consequences such as depression, anxiety, and obesity, creating a balance between the usage of these networks and other activities are vital.

Usage of the parental control software and hardware that plugs into your Internet router which can control everything on your home Wi-Fi network are ideal measures to protect your child online.

Being the most reliable builder in Kerala and understanding the significance of the real-world in contrast to the virtual world for children, Veegaland Homes have specially constructed spaces for your children to spend some playful time. Your family lives in our 2 and 3 BHK apartments in Kochi can be filled with a lot of fun and enthusiasm.

Sample apartments are ready to offer the first-hand experience to the interested home-buyers at four of our ongoing flats in Kochi.

Veegaland’s all ongoing projects are K-RERA registered – KingsFort | K-RERA/PRJ/031/2020, Zinnia| K-RERA/PRJ/038/2020, Exotica | K-RERA/PRJ/039/2020, Thejus | K-RERA/PRJ/040/2020, Bliss | K-RERA/PRJ/115/2020