The 5 Vital Rules of Social Media Safety for your Children

It is so important to educate yourself as well as your children about the dangers that lurk online. 

These rules are specially designed to ensure that parents and carers can help the youth enjoy their time on social media, but also stay safe.

     1.  Ask your children to always show you what sites they are using.

If you want to keep your kids safe, take an interest in what they are doing online. Ask them to show you what kind of sites they enjoy visiting and then take a look at them later when you’re alone. The sites your child is visiting may be undesirable so make use of the parental controls on your browser.

     2.  Ask your children to make their profile settings private.

Children like to share everything they do and everywhere they go on social media. Setting their profile to private will protect any personal info such as home address and their phone number from ending up in the wrong hands.

     3.  Ask your children about their online friends.

It is vital that your children know that people create fake online profiles and pretend to be someone else. Check up on your children, have a discussion about the people they chat online too and make sure they are only people they know in real life.

     4.  Ask your children to only share photos that I wouldn’t mind showing you first.

Take note of the kind of images your children are sharing on their social media pages. Do a photo check with them and go through all the sites and apps they use to share them. If they are not appropriate enough to show their parent, then they shouldn’t be shared.

     5.  Ask your children to come and talk to you if they are worried about something online.

Your children are more likely to turn to you for advice for something worrisome online if you actually take the time to talk to them about the internet and the risks they may come across. If they ever encounter something that makes them feel uncomfortable you will be the first person they turn to.

Did you know that 35% of children have unsupervised access to the internet? Don’t let your children be a part of this statistic – make sure their online experience is childproof!