Social media has come a long way, baby. A long way indeed. Cybersleuthing is what moms do instead of reading our kids’ diaries, when we fear they are in trouble.
“Good Morning America” had a great segment on today about why parents should have accounts on these networks — to check up on our kids.
It’s important to know and understand how they are communicating, and to whom they are communicating.
The segment is entitled, “Five Tips for Keeping Your Kids Safe Online.” ABC.com won’t let me embed it (bah!) but here’s the link.
Read the full ABCNews story here.
Want more help? Contact WiredSafety, “the world’s largest Internet safety and help group.”
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ABOUT ALICIA: Alicia is the founder of Balancing Motherhood.com. Last year, she managed to stay sane while completing an MBA, working full-time, blogging, and still baking amazing birthday cakes — all while raising a young family at home.
Debbie says
Wow. Spying on my kids, sneaking around online to see what they are doing – these sound like EXACTLY the behaviors I DON’T want to model. After all, what I do, they will do, too!
ABC does not appear to be promoting smart ways to keep our kids safe. Here is a 4 part blog series for keeping kids safe online that:
1) puts the dangers into perspective.
(http://staff.bbhcsd.org/schinkerj/archives/2008/05/15/protecting-kids-online-1-how-big-is-the-problem/)
2) gives parents some practical, FREE ideas to implement.(http://staff.bbhcsd.org/schinkerj/archives/2008/05/20/protecting-kids-online-2-tips-for-parents/)
3) talks about how to teach your kids to be safe online.
(http://staff.bbhcsd.org/schinkerj/archives/2008/05/27/protecting-kids-online-3-teach-your-children/)
and 4) talks about filtering and what it can – and cannot – do.
(http://staff.bbhcsd.org/schinkerj/archives/2008/06/04/protecting-kids-online-4-filtering/)
Melissa says
I absolutely agree. I have a 6 month old boy at home but I was surfing these sites way before I even had him because I use it to monitor what my clients do and say online (I’m a lawyer) albeit for different reasons.
Miss Grace says
I have one, mostly actually because I’m 25, and all my friends have pages, but I plan on staying on top of technology so that I can really understand what my son is facing as he gets older.