The social network of your teenaged kid is growing. So are the chances that they may own accounts with various social networking websites. Although you are aware of the security perils that these sites may pose for youngsters, it is not possible to keep him/her away from these sites. Therefore, in order to ensure that your children are online safe, you can yourself train them or mentor them about the privacy risks and other hazards. In this way you can make sure that what they know about the social networking sites is relevant and at the same time they know best how to keep themselves online safe. It is not possible to track all their online moves. Therefore, make them smart and tell them about the risks before they land themselves in trouble.
Keeping all these factors in mind several surveys were conducted and ultimately came with a conclusion that serious steps should be taken by parents regarding this matter, some of these are:
Tell them to hide their identity
Make your teens understand the worst consequences of exposing their personal information on social networking sites by quoting examples from vulgarity, drugs or any other issue. Keep your and your kid’s talk transparent and try to be frank with them. Tell them not to reveal their home addresses, mobile numbers or location on these sites.
Join them and help
Ask your teen to show you how they manage their privacy settings. Observe them how they sign-up and discuss with them about your concern regarding their online privacy. Ask for their help in doing privacy settings for your account to know how smart they are.
Be his friend or just follow him
If you want to see what your kids are posting online, be their follower or just follow their articles but don’t let them know about it otherwise they will be careful. They might not accept your friend request online but try to be in touch with them by other means.
Internet remembers everything
Tell your kid that whatever they are posting is gradually being transferred to several other sites and being read by various people. So, tell them to be attentive while posting any comment because even if he deletes it, it would be there on the net.
Never be friendly with strangers
Teach your kid to never accept any friend request until and unless they knew that person closely. Accepting requests from strangers gives them direct access to your personal information which might even lead you in great difficulty. So make sure they accept only those requests whom they have met in person.
So, as a parent it becomes your priority to keep an eye on our kids to prevent them from attempting any wrong behavior on these social networking sites. Teach them online etiquettes and timely watch their activities on the Internet just to avoid them from reaching any unpredictable situations.
