One of the problems that I have noticed with parents is whether or not it is okay for their children to be using the internet and social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and blogging. At what age is it okay for children to use the internet or set up an account? Each site differs, you usually have to be 15 years old in order to make a Myspace/ Facebook account, and you only have to be 14 or older in order to create a blog account.
In my personal opinion, although age does matter I think the most important factor is setting up guidelines/rules for your child to keep them safe. According to wiresafety.org, over six million underage children write blogs with or without their parents' knowledge (Gunelius, Should You Let Your Child Blog?). It is so simple for an underage child to get ahold of a blogging account, all they have to do is simply lie and put down a different birth date. This could be problematic because your child might be reading material that they shouldn't be reading, they could be in contact with someone that to them might seem like a good person and all of a sudden personal information is exchanged.
Believe it or not, this situation does happen. Years ago when Facebook first came out, my sister (who is older than me) created a Facebook account, she had put her home address (my mom's house) and even put photos of what our house looks like....to my suprise I found out a few weeks later that someone or some people came to my mom's house when my mom was alone and tried to break into the separate garage and shot out the window.
Even though this is a huge concern for parents, I don't believe that they shouldn't allow their child to blog altogether. Blogging has a lot of benefits such as improvement in communication and writing skills. I believe that the easiest solution is to set guidelines/rules for the safety of your child. When I was little and my parents told me I couldn't do something, I always found a way to do it, so I'm ASSUMING that many children will just go ahead and create a blog without their parents knowing.
So to make everyone a tad bit happier, I came across an article written by Susan Gunelius on weblogs.com, her article is Should You Let Your Child Blog? She gives some useful information for parents with this specific concern. She states that children should not use their full name, school name, address, or any photos of themselves for safety reasons. Also, parents should be encouraged to help their child find an appropriate blogging site, set safety measures like password protection on certain things so your child cannot get to them, and lastly, screen and monitor the content.
Also, ALWAYS TALK TO YOUR CHILD instead of saying no, so they understand why they are not allowed to do certain things. On her article there are also a lot of useful links that are associated with safety and children.
http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/i/KidsBlogging.htm
This link is for the main page, if you scroll down you will find the article Should You Let Your Child Blog?
I hope this information helps anyone with safety concerns for their child/children.
Thanks for the interesting post! I think about a lot of these safety concerns for myself, much less my yet un-born kids. For my CSE 694 class we just got done reading Young People, Ethics and the New Digital Media, http://www.pz.harvard.edu/eBookstore/PDFs/Goodwork54.pdf, a book about a similar topic. In one of the case studies, a girl's parents knew about one social media account but not another and she ended up getting into age inappropriate situations. I think your point of talking out the issues is really important. And like you said, kids are kids and will push boundaries, so at some point you have to home they'll come back to an adult for help if they need it.
ReplyDeleteHey! I think we have that class together :) yeah well from experience, my sister was 20 at the time I believe and even though I told her NOT to put any personal information, even a picture of your home with your address on it, someone could recognize or find it. Safety is always a huge concern, and with kids, they don't know any better, so speaking with them in a calm manner explaining why it is so important and to also monitor because they might forget as kids do.
ReplyDeleteI have two young children and I would lie if I didn't say that I already think about stuff like this and all the things that go along with being a teen and pre teen for that matter. Cyber bullying scares me, pedophiles scare me...so there is so much to consider when allowing kids to use social media...clear guidelines, open communication and THEY MUST ACCEPT MY FRIEND REQUEST :)
ReplyDeleteTraci, I like where your head is at!
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