Rebecca Levey is a co-founder of KidzVuz.com, a video review site by and for tweens. She writes about technology and education at Beccarama and is a White House Champion of Change for Education. Follow her at @beccasara.  On the face of it, my 10-year-old twin daughters are the poster girls for the "digital natives" generation.  They've had a Leapster since age 4, and have been online since they were 5 — first playing on Webkinz, then Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, and other online virtual worlds. They can navigate PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and Photoshop like pros. We had all the discussions I thought we needed to have — don't give out your password, don't give out personal information, report inappropriate behavior — and I keep their computers in the living room or kitchen where I can constantly look over their shoulders.  Being the digital mom I am, I thought I had covered all bases. But what I hadn't counted on was social media being an entirely different beast, and rendering my digitally savvy girls into digital Mr. Magoos.  I live a good deal of my life online. The ease with which I move between Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, chat and other social media is second nature and central to my work. It never occurred to me that my daughters would have no idea what they were doing when they entered the social media space. After all, for me it's just an extension of my "real" life. But I quickly came to realize that of course is the crux of the issue when it comes to tweens and teens online: they are just starting to figure out what it means to be social in their real world. Adding in social media amplifies and intensifies all of the bumbling mistakes, mean girl tendencies and just out right naivitee.  Over the past year I've watched my daughters and their friends set up email accounts, Instagram accounts and various chat apps on their newly acquired smartphones and iPods. It's clear that they are truly clueless. Emails are always "reply all" and sent to practically everyone in their address books — not to mention the crazy chain emails they send.  So, the first discussion I had to have with my daughters was about email protocol and etiquette — and to reassure them over and over again that someone they loved would not die if they didn't forward that email to 10 other people. It's actually not easy to convince a 10-year-old girl of this fact.  Unfortunately, email was the most benign of our social media issues. The real problem is apps — specifically Instagram. There's been a ton of press coverage about the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and the new focus on apps. However, that focus is all about marketing and behavioral tracking, not the real hazards of tweens using these apps — the ones parents are much more concerned about — and the social and psychological effects of over-sharing or just plain public stupidity. Most parents I've spoken to don't even know that it's illegal for their kids to have an Instagram account if they're under 13. There's been so much attention paid to Facebook, but from what I'm seeing and hearing, it's all about Instagram for kids.  Parents who would never let their child have a Facebook account are completely fine with Instagram, basically because it hasn't gotten the same amount of publicity. The same is true for the popular chat apps like Kik Messenger, which kids are signing up for in droves. Some know to keep their accounts private, but many don't. All you have to do is read the reviews in the app store to see the completely inappropriate, sexual and predator behaviors going on with Kik.  I would never hand my daughters the keys to the car when they turn 16 without having had some kind of driver's training — not to mention passing their driving test. Yet my girls have a supercomputer connected to the world in the palm of their hand every day, and no instruction manual. That had to change. This isn't about care and responsibility for the device, it's about having a social media playbook so they can understand the rules of the game and be as safe and smart as possible.  Here are my social media rules for my girls:  Linked Accounts in iTunes: At first I HATED that my account was on their iPod and every app they downloaded ended up on my device. Now, I am thankful for it. They can't download any app in secret  I'm their friend, literally: Instagram and elsewhere, if the app is social they have to friend me  Privacy Please: There's no such thing as privacy online, but keeping their accounts private keeps strangers from following them without permission. However, it's incredibly important to tell your kids that NOTHING is private, ever. Screenshots are easy to take, and friends who aren't as careful can easily share your photos and texts  The Talk: No taking naked pics. No passing on of naked pics of others if they land in your stream (my girls still don't understand why anyone would take naked pics, but they're 10.) And as my friend told her son when he got his first phone, no sticking it down your pants. A point worth making. Also, don't post pics of others without their permission, which technically a child under 13 can't give. The same personal info talk still applies â€“- no giving out addresses, names, schools, passwords and other identifiable ID  Turn off location tracking. Period  Know your child's device password  And here's a really important one for parents: Don't allow connected devices at your child's parties, especially sleepovers. This is where so much trouble starts. Inevitably kids who weren't invited see pictures on Instagram and feel left out. There is also potential for the worst pictures to be taken and shared. And, it's a huge recipe for peer pressure to text kids of the opposite sex, entice mean girl behavior and worse. Tell parents that all devices must be left home, and have a basket in your room to keep devices that come with guests despite your best intent. It's not the worse thing in the world for kids to actually have to play games and have fun without electronics for one day. They can still get in plenty of the usual trouble, but at least there won't be a digital record of it  Do your kids have a road map for good social media behavior and etiquette? Tell us about them in the comments.  This post is part of a series on the dilemmas of raising digital kids. We'd like to hear some of the parenting issues technology has raised for you. Please let us know in the comments, or on our Mashable Lifestyle Facebook page. You can also follow and tweet us @mashlifestyle.  Image Credit: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images
Your kids were born and raised with technology -- but does that make them exempt from a lesson on digital etiquette?