Secure Online Families | Part 3: Social Media
This is the 3rd article in a 9-part series | Keeping our children safe is a high priority for most parents and guardians, and this increasingly includes online security.
Social media can be used for a lot of good, but it can be addicting and have other consequences.
Risks
Youth increasingly use social media to communicate and socialize with their friends, with both positive and negative outcomes. Here are some of the risks of social media use:
- Social media apps/sites are intentionally designed to be addicting
- Increased use is closely related to depression and anxiety. Some reasons include:
- When peers do socialize in-person, they post about it. Those not invited feel left out
- Posts are routinely made (positive or negative) about a youth that are outside of their control
- People post mainly the positive aspects of their lives, leaving many viewers feeling negatively about their own lives
- Sharing too much information (including photos) can lead to:
- Online predators obtaining a lot of information
- Targeted stalking, robbery or other bad situations
- Identity theft
- You can use these online tools to see all of the invisible information your photos contain (called “metadata” or “exif” data)
You can read about more social media risks teens face online at this Pew Research article.
Solutions
Here are some tips to help kids stay safe and healthy while using social media:
- Implement time limits on social media
- Discuss the potential for mental health problems that come from over-use
- There are filters that can enforce this. Your internet provider may already have free tools.
- Talk about how people generally only share the positive sides of their lives
- Teach youth how and how much to appropriately share (and the dangers of over-sharing), including:
- That posts can be screenshotted andarchived, so even if a post is deleted it may still exist somewhere out there
- How to setup privacy settings (e.g., posts are only visible to friends)
- Note: Everyone has different risk tolerance levels, so “how much” may vary from person to person
- Only add people to accounts whom they’ve met in-person
- Turn off geolocation on photos
An Important Note: Social media is now how many youth create and maintain friendships (often even more so than in-person). As a result, completely banning social media use may not the best solution.
The Series:
- Part 1: Introduction (Dec 18th)
- Part 2: Cyber Bullying (Dec 18th)
- Part 3: Social Media (Dec 26th)
- Part 4: Anonymity (Jan 2nd)
- Part 5: False Information (Jan 8th)
- Part 6: Violent Media (Jan 15th)
- Part 7: Sex/Pornography (Jan 22nd)
- Part 8: Comprehensive Solutions (Jan 29th)
- Part 9: Conclusion & Additional Resources (Feb 5th)
My Credentials
I work in InfoSec and have published a couple of academic articles while finishing my masters degree.
[This story has been adapted to article format from my site securefamilies.org]
