We
should by now all be familiar with Facebook and Twitter and have hopefully
‘befriended’ our online, socially active children in order to monitor their
engagements with cyber-friends. However, tweens and teens are very socially
savvy and shrewd at keeping their private lives private, even if it is to their
own detriment.
New
social networks are popping up all over the Internet and many parents may not
be aware of their children’s cyber connections and the implications of
inappropriate interactions. With Internet bullying, cyber stalking and
cyber-torture, it is very necessary to educate ourselves in the latest
cyber-sites that can open doors to cyber abuse. As an old-school mom, I’m still
telling my child not to talk to strangers but this sage advice does not
transfer to the obscure regions of the cyber-world. Here are just a few of the
sites you may want to check out and talk with your kids about.
Instagram
is a popular photo-sharing site owned by Facebook. Users can create collages of their photos and
share them across Facebook and other social media platforms. It may be slightly
tamer than Tumblr, but users can still find inappropriate content and comments
throughout the app.
Tumblr’s
real appeal is its social network capability. It is teeming with teenagers, or
those posing as teenagers, liking one another's posts, commenting back and
forth and responding to questions – often from strangers. Tumblr can be funny
or helpful, but posts are also uncensored and often pornographic.
Ask.fm
is a site where you sign up with a basic profile and picture and then answer
questions posed to you by other users, both friends and strangers. While,
"Are you a cat or a dog person?" is a common thread, darker and more
sexual questions show up as well. Ask.fm has been in the news lately after
harassed members committed suicide.
Snapchat
has also been in the news lately following reports of an alarming number of
young people using the app for ‘sexting’ and bullying. Basically, the app makes
it simple to share pictures and video clips for ten seconds and then the
content disappears. However, it is possible to make a screenshot of a picture
while it is displayed on the screen and so any pictures can become publicly
available online at anytime.
Shots
of Me, an app that Justin Bieber is highly invested, has a direct-messaging
feature where users can only send private messages to one another. This is in
hopes of stopping cyberbullying. However, teens and anyone else can still be
cruel in a private message. The app also shows user’s location unless that
feature is managed in the app’s settings.
Tinder's
developers describe the app as a “fun way to connect with new and interesting
people around you." But it's mainly used to find dates and “hook ups”. In
a nutshell, Tinder helps people find others in their geographic location. Users
view each other’s photos and start instant messaging once both people have
"liked" one another. Tinder's privacy policy allows teens as young as
13 to register.
There
are ways to block social networks and software available to spy on your kids
online, but I think the best way to stay connected – cyber or otherwise – with
your children is to have some good old fashion face-to-face conversations.
Then, as President Reagan famously said, “trust, but verify.”
Contact
Margaret Lavin at elementarydays@gmail.com.
