The world of social media is vast, and while there’s a lot of good to gain from it, there’s a lot that can be dangerous or harmful. Parents are especially concerned for their kids’ safety on social media, and rightfully so.
Often, parents use spy apps for iPhones and Android devices to track their children’s activities. This can be a great way to ensure that children are keeping the right company and aren’t doing anything that puts them in any form of danger.
However, parents can’t always track their children’s online activities, and this is when it helps to incorporate certain practices that can help ensure their safety at all times on social media. This guide dives into five such measures you can take, so let’s get right into it.
Measures to Keep Your Child Safe on Social Media
Ensure They Don’t Put Up Any Private Information
The fundamental rule of using social media is to always build a barrier between the information you are comfortable with people knowing, with that which must remain private. This can go a long way in ensuring that the wrong people don’t get their hands on your child’s details, like their phone number, their address, school, and so on.
Children love uploading all kinds of information on social media, and this is why it’s imperative that parents teach their kids about how much information is too much. This is a healthy practice that they will take into their adulthood, and help them maintain their privacy better.
Make use of Privacy Settings
Every social media platform comes with its share of privacy settings. These can range from filters about how much content the public or friends can know, the ability to lock one’s profile on Facebook, or make a handle private on Instagram. These are great first steps to take while trying to ensure that your children remain safe on social media. It can go a long way in ensuring nobody gets access to information that could be used to harm your child.
It’s also essential that parents teach their kids the importance of these [rivacy settings, rather than just imposing them on their profiles. This will help them stay cautious and value their privacy better.
Set up a Strong Password
The next step is to set up strong passwords for your children’s social media accounts. People often use passwords that are easy for them to remember, like their birthdays, or their friends’ or pet’s name. However, just as these passwords tend to be easy to remember, they’re just as easy to crack for someone who wants to hack into your child’s accounts. And trust us when we say that the internet is filled with people who can do this.
The ideal password must incorporate the following aspects:
- It must have a mix of both upper and lower case characters.
- It must be alphanumeric.
- It must not contain values or names that a third person could easily guess.
Install an Anti-Virus Program on Their Phones
In today’s world which is seeing an increase in cybercrime, using an antivirus program is a must. These are great to prevent hackers from gaining access to your child’s devices by infecting them with a virus. There are several good software in the market, such as Norton and Avast, and they’re also available for mobile devices.
Teach Kids The Importance of Staying Wary of Strangers
Often, the most dangerous people on social media are those hiding in plain sight. They might send your child a friend or follow a request on the pretext of becoming their friend and chatting with them. Children often fall for such tactics, and before they know it, find themselves having given out sensitive information like their phone number or address to a complete stranger.
This can have devastating effects and must be avoided at all costs. This is where it becomes important to educate children about the dangers of speaking to or befriending strangers. They must be taught that while it’s completely alright to connect with their friends and family on social media, they must avoid doing so with people they don’t know or have never met or heard of.
In Conclusion
With so many social media apps today, children have several avenues to connect with the world outside their homes and schools. However, keeping them safe is of utmost importance. While this guide has listed five practices that must be inculcated and taught, parents also use the best phone tracking apps as an added layer of precaution. Whatever your approach, the goal should be to ensure your child’s safety online.
