Interviews with both parents of the bullying victim and the bullies found that they all checked their child's Facebook page. All of them thought they were monitoring their child's social media habits and messages. All of them were wrong. None were aware of the messages that were being sent through other social media avenues such as Kik messenger and ask.fm.
When reading the news-articles I had to ask myself, "Would I have known?" Unfortunately the answer would have been no. I like to think of myself as at least competent in the area of technology. Reading through the list of social media apps that were used I did not recognize a majority of them. Upon further research I found articles describing the newest "generation" of social media. Apps such as Pheed, Wanelo , or 4chan have never even entered into my field of awareness. Even a casual perusal of the websites and apps show that they all have active populations. Even more disturbing was how easy it is on many of these apps to access inappropriate content.
Andrew is only fifteen months old, so it's a little early for me to start worrying about his social media habits. That doesn't stop me though. He is growing up in a world that is increasing connected through media. Eliminating the use of social media is impractical. For better or worse it is becoming more and more integrated into our everyday world. I won't be able to monitor every single website or app that Andrew ever looks at. How do I as a parent allow my child to participate in media community while at the same time protecting them? I don't see easy answers. I'm sure it's a question that I'm going to struggle with for the next thirty years or so.
Open communication. That's what we use. Each of the girls has a list of their passwords and I don't use their lists but I know where they are and they trust me to know. We talk about different websites and scenarios and proper responses.
ReplyDeletei.e. Eva once saw something that made her uncomfortable and she just turned off the computer completely. I told her that was perfectly okay. They tell me when something makes them feel "off" and we talk about it. I also don't wrap them in such a bubble that they never see or hear anything. We talk about the swearing they hear at school and why it's inappropriate and what they could do to possible change it such as actually telling the other person that they feel uncomfortable when they talk like that and that they won't stand around listening to it.
You and Wendy will do fine as long as you are aware and are involved. Just taking the time to listen to your children is huge even at Andrew's young age.