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According to Meta, the minimum age requirement for joining social media is 13 years. But that’s not always the case in practice, and there are social networks that don’t even apply this age limit. If your child is active on social media, the wise move is to monitor their actions. This guide focuses on the top reasons to keep track of your kid’s online activity. Here’s why monitoring could help ensure your child stays safe on the web!
You Can’t Trust They’ll Always Make the Right Call
If children are new to social media, they’ll experience some situations for the first time in their lives. That could lead them to make the wrong move by mistake. It could be accepting a stranger for a friend, revealing their location, or the fact the entire family is on vacation. These are all risks that compromise their personal, as well as your whole family’s, safety.
The good news is that monitoring their social media activity has become easier than ever. Even if you aren’t a tech expert, you can install an iPhone parental control app for safety in minutes. These tools monitor social media and other phone activity. They come with useful features, such as location tracking and web filtering.
It’s up to you whether you’ll be open and admit you are monitoring your kid’s phone. Experts recommend understanding the difference between compromising privacy and keeping your child secure. So, even if you monitor your child’s phone, act only in situations when a potential threat arises.
The Danger of Cyberbullies
Cyberbullying is a form of bullying that happens on the internet. According to the statistics, 37% of children between 12 and 17 years old have experienced it in some form. Here are some examples of bullying in the virtual world:
- Sending demeaning, mean, or otherwise negative voice or text messages on gaming sites.
- Posting insulting messages and revealing secrets on social media.
- Sending threatening messages to social media inboxes with the purpose of scaring someone and making them feel bad.
If your child plays games or engages in another social activity online, check the messages they are sending and receiving. They could be a victim of cyberbullying but might also be the ones inflicting it. Warning signs include the child’s sudden behavior change, such as becoming nervous, angry, or sad, especially while using phones or computers.
Exposure to Inappropriate Content
The internet is full of different content. Some are educational and useful to expand your child’s knowledge. There’s entertaining content that’s great for having fun. But there’s also content that’s inappropriate, especially at a young age.
Some websites contain pornographic, violent, or otherwise unsuitable content for children. Parents can use filtering and similar features on web browsers and monitoring apps to prevent kids from visiting these sites.
Keep Their Reputation Intact
As a parent, it’s important to talk to kids about things they can share on social media. That doesn’t only include what they post on personal profiles but also the content of direct messages. Teens often engage in sexting and often don’t hesitate to send provocative photos.
That comes with a big risk of the other party sharing those photos publicly, which could be a huge hit on your kid’s reputation. Monitoring your child’s messages will allow you to recognize signals and stop sexting from going too far.
Protect Their Personal and Family Info
Your kid might share that they’ll go to the park to play with friends in the afternoon on social media. Unfortunately, that could reveal their whereabouts to a potential predator. Keeping your kid’s social media profile private is imperative, but even then, it’s better not to share location info.
The same applies to family-related information. If they share that the entire family went on vacation, it’s a signal to the thieves that your home is empty.
Final Thoughts – Better Safe Than Sorry
From protecting them from cyberbullies to ensuring they don’t encounter predators, monitoring your child, online activity is imperative in keeping them safe. As a parent, you need to be supportive and encourage your child to discuss any potential problem they might encounter online. Try to act as a guide and offer advice instead of critics. That way, you’ll ensure the child will turn to you the moment they believe their internet safety might be compromised.
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