One day, your child will need a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or other social network account. Can he indicate a different age if the real one is younger? Or register under your own name? We will introduce you to the basic rules of digital parenting.
Children and social networks
This includes not only Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, but also about virtual worlds such as Minecraft. All of them are quite attractive even for adults, which is a threat to privacy. The main meaning of communication in such places is friendship, and only then entertainment.
The older the child, the less the influence of parents, and the opinion of peers is more important. Social networks are convenient, you can find out what friends are doing or how another idol lives.
Children share funny or creative messages or videos with each other in the hope of getting a lot of likes or even becoming an internet celebrity. But few of them think about privacy, the risk of being in the hands of a fraudster.
Parents should warn the trouble, if you do not inform the child, the risk of strangers visiting your home increases significantly, especially when it comes to young people under 12 years old.
Social networks and the age of the child
If your child is interested in a particular social platform, make sure it is safe first. Good websites for children contain a privacy policy and other useful information about data processing.
The legal age limit on many social networks is 13, however, younger children are also starting an account. It is clear that the network is used by the entire primary class, as well as their younger brothers / sisters.
But it’s worth knowing that a child under 13 is not protected by law, and in case of problems, it will be impossible to prove a violation on the part of the platform, because, first of all, you broke the law as a parent who allowed you to use the social network before the proper age.
Start Together
Create an account together and discuss anything you might encounter. Talk about it and ask questions. For example, discuss privacy settings. What information is your child showing and to whom?
Discuss the possibility of adding friends – only those people who are well known are added. It can be classmates, close relatives, acquaintances from a sports school or circles.
Teach your child to take care of himself. Explain that if he posts his photo on the Internet, he will lose control of it forever. You never know for sure who will see the photo and what will be done with it.
Another not unimportant point is friendly communication. It is easy to ruin and offend a person with the help of text. But how then to look him in the eye? Friendly users are more popular and respected than rude ones.
Be the first to be added as a friend to your child and watch to prevent erroneous actions by the child.
Copyright
Don’t forget to discuss the topic of copyright. There are young users who had to pay a large amount to the owner of the photo posted in their account. The same applies to the publication of texts without indicating the source.
Before you post someone else’s work, you must contact its author and ask for permission. In addition, any image taken from the Internet may be protected by copyright.
Protection of personal information
The child should not transmit data even to his friends about the place of work of the parents, about the time when they come home, and even more so it is impossible to report such things to new acquaintances.
Some adults may pretend to be an official employee or a peer in order to later break into an apartment at a given address when the family goes on vacation.
Games and advertising in social networks
Teach your child to adequately relate to advertising and games offered by the platform. Not every advertisement is worthy of attention or carries valuable information.
If these are online stores, then it would be a big mistake to go and spend your or your parents’ savings without the consent of adults. You must decide together that any online spending is prohibited.
Many children are proud of the results obtained in games within the social network, some of them are available for free, others require the purchase of additional resources. Explain that you don’t want to provide for the developer’s family, your salary is only for your family and offline entertainment.
Regularly ask your child how he is doing so that only you, and not all social platforms, know about all the experiences. In this way, you will save yourself and the child from many problems that happen due to inexperience.