When you are a parent, you spend all of your time worrying about your children. It doesn’t matter if they are four years old or fourteen, the worry doesn’t stop; it just changes. As we move through this digital world we live in, the need to monitor our children is changing, too. When they are toddlers, we add locks to the windows and cushioned corners on the tables, but what about when they’re teenagers?
Well, that’s when things change. While we don’t always monitor whether they will get into the cupboard under the sink with the bleach, we do have to monitor social media. Social media has been an excellent addition to daily life for the most part. It enables us to keep in touch with friends and family, find jobs and it allows us to share our lives, maintaining a permanent digital footprint. However, for all the good things it has, it’s not always the safest place – especially for vulnerable, impressionable, and innocent teenagers. You should be doing all that you can to monitor social media usage for your teenagers so that they stay as safe as possible when they are navigating the online world. Here are some of the reasons you should be working monitoring social media.
Some Apps Aren’t Safe.
Most gaming apps for 12-14-year-olds are pretty harmless, but there are a lot of things out there that enable chat conversations with strangers. These are not people your teenagers know, which makes them unsafe.
Body Image & Selfies
Selfies are great when you’re trying to snap a quick pic, but for teenagers, selfies are the thing that they can obsess over. They snap fifty selfies trying to get the perfect one and this obsession can lead to some severe body image issues.
A Lack Of Manners
Teenagers are still learning how to carry themselves and hold themselves in the world. The screen on their social media gives some teenagers the belief that they can say whatever they want to whomever they like without consequence.
Unending Drama
Bullying is no longer limited to the playground – not with social media around. When there are issues, these are continued on social media and teenagers take all the pain and worry home with them without a break. There’s no stopping the pain with social media affecting your teenager.
Mistakes Are Permanent
Teenagers are supposed to make mistakes. They are supposed to trip up and do things wrongly, and they should be allowed to do that while they learn how to navigate who they are and their identity. With social media, those mistakes are broadcast for the world to know and those are not easy to erase. Even if social media sites are taken down, those things are still going to linger – and it’s not fun for your teenager.
How To Help
You don’t have to panic about your teenager on social media, not when you can use Family Orbit and monitor social media carefully for yourself. This doesn’t mean you’re stalking your kid, and the conversation should be open one about apps like this one. You’re keeping them safe, and that’s the most important thing to know.