Balancing transparency and privacy with your child’s social media 🎥
While parents need to be informed about their children’s digital lives, the approach for each kid is not one-size-fits-all. In fact, parental involvement can differ a lot from family to family. In this article, you’ll learn ways your family can strike the balance between transparency and privacy in the digital era.
As parents, we want to know everything that our kids do both on-and-offline to keep them safe. But where is the line between being curious and being invasive?
Our experts suggest that when asking your child questions about their social media, parents should keep conversations open-ended and maintain an open mindset. By creating a safe space for difficult conversations, you’ll encourage your child to be honest about their social media usage, and have better success in establishing the importance of online safety practices.
5 key tips for creating productive conversations with your kids
- Ask lots of questions: Keep the conversation flowing by asking about their online activities, being supportive, and guiding them along their journey. You may discover that your child has a diverse realm of productive interests.
- Navigate your kids’ websites with them to understand how they work: Your child may be more tech savvy than you, but you can get a basic understanding of their online activities and why they’re so engaging.
- Ask your child how they’re engaging online, rather than direct and close-ended questions: Close-ended questions like “Did you see something online that disturbed you?”, “Is someone harassing you?”, or “Why are you moody?” don’t tend to get honest answers.
- Be an emotional role model: Naturally, parents set an example for their children, and it’s our responsibility to be a good one. By being open about your emotions on a regular basis, parents encourage children to be honest about how what they’re doing or seeing on social media makes them feel. If your child expresses positive responses, you can feel reassured. If they’re experiencing waves of negative emotions, you can step in to navigate why they’re feeling this way and how you can prevent it (less screen time, parental controls, etc.).
- Use digital tools to your advantage for peace of mind: While there are many things to be concerned about online, our devices can be great tools in telling us where our kids are, what they’re doing, and allowing us to contact them at any time. They’re just one click away.
Continuing to have open conversations with your kids about their social media use will help you get a clearer picture of their intentions and interests, allowing you to bond closer with your child and protect them from harmful content.
Watch what the experts have to say
Parents, wondering how to talk to your kids and teens about inappropriate content? Check out this article.
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