Tips to Teach Your Teen to Be Cyber Smart Citizen!

Your child’s digital footprint can have a huge impact on their future. Because some companies today search for a person’s social media profile before offering a job. Therefore, the digital image of the child is very important. You need to teach your child how to make good digital presentations and what they should avoid when surfing the Internet. Modern technology and social media bring many wonderful things. However, if your child does not use social media properly, he/she can be negatively affected. As a parent, you should guide them to use the Internet wisely. Here are three tips to help your child get a good and secure online experience.

1. Check the Privacy Settings

Before sharing information on social media, check your child’s privacy settings. Tell your kid to be selective when sharing content on social media while staying smart. Do not share pictures or videos of others without their permission. Adding someone to a post means that you allow his friends to view the post. Be sure not to use social media scrapbooks. Never share real-time locations on social media, as doing so is allowing others to follow you. It’s important to check the privacy settings of your social media profiles and posts to protect your child’s privacy. Make sure that only your child’s friends can see their posts. Tell your child to set visibility to “Friends Only.”

• If your children are uploading content to appear only to a specific audience, they need to choose an option called “Specific Friends.” If they don’t want to show posts to certain specific friends, they can choose the “Friends Other Than” option. Here, children can choose friends who don’t want to show posts.
• If the children choose the “Only Me” option, only themselves can view the posts. In Instagram, if your children select the “Private Account” option, others on Instagram other than their friends will not be able to find his posts, so the child’s information can be protected.
• If your children doesn’t set their privacy settings correctly, some people with bad intentions may abuse their personal information.

2. Befriending and Unfriending Guidelines

Teens should be selective in choosing online and offline friends. If someone on your child’s friends list posted inappropriate pictures, videos or posts, you should tell your child to unfriend them. Ask your child to follow these guidelines:

• If someone posts a nude or socially unacceptable picture or video on their timeline, or if he or she has tagged you in such a post, quickly unfriend with that person.
• If someone is a friend of yours or a friend in real life, you can add them as friends on social software.
• Learn how to report violations on social media sites. Choose your virtual friends wisely. Does not accept friend requests from strangers.

3. Cyberbullying and Online Harassment

If someone uses electronic communications to bully others by sending threatening messages, it is called cyberbullying. As a parent, if you notice a sudden change in your child’s behavior, you should watch him or her and talk to them publicly to see if they are facing online threats.

• Ask them how to report abuse on each social media platform.
• Ask them to tell their parents or adults if they are victims of online abuse.
• Tell them not to engage in any cyberbullying.
• Tell them not to stay in chat rooms or websites that make them uncomfortable.

Kids need to check their privacy settings before sharing a post on social media. They should not send or upload pictures or videos of private body parts on social media. Children should be responsible on social media. They should stay away from any political, religious and nasty conversations on social media sites. They should learn to report abuse. If they are becoming a victim of cyberbullying, they should immediately inform you about the matter. Social media should not be used as their scrapbook. It is very important to check and use the privacy settings of your social media profile and posts to keep privacy of your personal data so that ultimately your teen can become a cyber smart citizen. In addition, you can always make use of iKeyMonitor for having an eye on all the digital activities of your children.