With Safer Internet Day on celebrated on the 9th February, let’s make this Safer Internet month. Here are some digital safety no-no’s to make your teens and tweens aware of. They all down to choices. Your children are ultimately going to be responsible for each and every choice, each and every connection/friend that they make online or via instant messaging apps. Watch a video of Nikki discussing this topic on the Expresso morning show, and listen to her podcast below:
Digital safety tweens and teens Podcast
Digital safety tweens and teens Video
Ages 10 – 18 years (or any child that has an internet-linked device)
- Parents, use all or any of the above for dinner conversation with your device-toting children.
- Here is a quick family digital safety check to do with each child – much like locking the door to your house and setting your alarm before going to bed at night:
- Make sure they have passwords installed on their devices. If not, help them create one and discuss why it is important.
- If they have shared their password with someone else, even if it is their BFF, insist that they create a new one, immediately.
- Check if their location settings are switched on and get them to switch them off after having a discussion with them.
- Look at how much personal information they are sharing on their social media profiles. Physical addresses and even school names should go.
- Encourage them to delete any porn off their phones. If they are caught with it under the age of 18 and if it can be proven that they shared it with anyone, they can acquire a criminal record.
- Check the profile pictures your teens are using on social media and instant messaging services such as Snapchat and Whatsapp. There are some risqué ones around (close ups of private parts or scantily clad bodies are good examples) and you would be surprised at the fact that many nice kids use them. If the pictures don’t portray your child and your family in a positive light, get them to change their profile picture. This is their advertisement to the world, like a giant billboard, so to speak.
- Have a family Google session. Google every family member by name and see if anything comes up. If it does, make sure it is good stuff. If there is negative stuff, discuss reputational risk and work at getting it removed.
Creative parenting expert, inspirational speaker and co-author of Tech-Savvy Parenting (Bookstorm, 2014), Future-proof Your Child (Penguin, 2008), and Easy Answers to Awkward Questions (Metz Press, 2009)