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.
