s/o What do you tell your children about social media, Tinder, etc.

[umsami]

Heard/saw this on NPR...and it made me wonder what sort of conversations people are having with their children regarding social media.

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/02/29/467959873/teen-girls-and-social-media-a-story-of-secret-lives-and-misogyny

Edited March 1, 2016 by umsami

[Dmmetler]

In our case, it's actually worked pretty well-DD has accounts for her projects, which are owned, monitored, and moderated by me. Through them, she's learning that yes, sometimes strange stuff comes up, to block/mute with impunity,and to be careful who she follows. Because she knows I have to be on it due to her age, it's giving her a chance to see it monitored and modeled before she has a private account. Most of the people she follows are doctoral students and professors.

 

We've also discussed Kik, tinder, and a few others because sometimes requests or links to other people's accounts are posted, and she knows exactly what the sites are and WHY it's not a good idea to play around with them at this point. We'll keep doing that, and my goal is that she knows that she can come to us when, not if, something questionable comes up. We had a recent situation in our homeschool group where one of the 'tween boys ended up in conversations with what turned out to be a known offender on Xbox live pretending to be a kid-and it was the fact that this kid knew what was "Wrong" and needed to be reported to an adult that ended up avoiding a bad situation.

 

 

[lllll]

nm

Edited March 7, 2016 by _ oq?"

[Ausmumof3]

We don't do social media either. And by "we" I mean NONE of us besides LinkedIn accounts for me and dh to keep up with professional contacts in a passive manner.

 

Also- PSA to note that Pinterest isn't a cute crafty "safe" social media account for kids to have. There is a very very dark side to Pinterest AND a chat feature. We learned all of this the hard way and it sealed our foray into social media off for the foreseeable future for the kids.

😮😦😕

[AK_Mom4]

DS20 and DD14 are pretty good about explaining to me how social media works.

 

Internet is Internet. Smart Internet skills apply on every site and media type.

Edited March 1, 2016 by AK_Mom4

[Lady Marmalade]

My kids are allowed to use whatever social media their friends are using.  Since I don't have a media friendly device (I only have Facebook), DH has friended them on snapchat, instagram and something else, just to take a quick glance every once in a while.  

 

Our only rule:  Only friend people you actually know in real life and WANT to friend.  

 

One of the apps they use to follow celebrities and dance people they know and love, and we're totally okay with that.