Social media concerns

Make sure geo-location is disabled to keep their whereabouts private.

To help your child understand how this will help keep them safe, you can:

• Explain why it’s important that they never share personal information with people they don’t know online.
• Remind your child to come and talk to you if someone or something online is making them feel uncomfortable.
• Be clear that your child should never ever meet someone face to face without your consent or your presence, and that the person they’ve been chatting to could easily be someone with bad intentions.

Encourage them to think about why friends may share certain posts. Show them how to gently challenge their friends if they find their content offensive. Remind them they can always talk to you about things happening online.

• Judge what effect the content is having on your child. Ensure they know that they should report abusive or inappropriate content on the social platform and consider blocking anyone that may be saying hurtful things.
• If they are deeply affected by the posts, consider advising them to take a break from the social network and concentrate on other activities that might make them happier.
• If you feel that the comments may be affecting your child’s mental health and wellbeing, it’s best to go and see your GP. Depending on the seriousness of the comments, it might be advisable to file a police report. If you do take this step, make sure you keep some evidence that records what’s happened and how it’s affected them.

Remind your child that these images are their personal digital footprint for years to come and advise them to use settings that only let them share with friends they know.

You can also help them maintain a positive presence online by:

• Encouraging them to think before they share. They should understand that their actions online can affect both themselves and others.
• Teach your child that it’s difficult to keep things private online. Even messages sent between friends get passed on and accounts can be hacked. You should also tell your child not to post anything they wouldn’t want thousands of people to see.  If they’re not happy to wear it on their T-shirt they shouldn’t post it online.
• Be a role model so your child understands that you’d never post anything that you wouldn’t want them to see. 

Playing games online can be fun and positive but make sure your child understands people may hide behind fake profiles for dishonest reasons and learn how to block and report anything offensive.

• Have an open discussion with them about who they are talking to online. Explain the risks they may face, and consider using parental controls to limit who they can play with online. Most consoles offer parental controls, but also check any social media platforms they may be using while gaming.
• Remind your child that they should never give out personal information when chatting to someone they don’t know online, and make sure they understand what personal information is.
• Be clear with your child that they should never meet someone face to face without your consent, or you present. Show them how to block and report anything offensive and encourage them to talk to you if someone or something online is making them feel uncomfortable.

Most social media apps have a minimum age rating of 13.

If a social network has set an age limit it means that some of the content may not be suitable for a younger child.

Recommendations if your child is under the minimum age for a social network and they want to join:

• Research the social network, find out what type of content your child may be exposed to. Decide whether they’re ready for it. Encourage them to join age-appropriate social networks like Kuddle.
• Discuss if they’re mature enough to handle the type of content they may see on social platforms and if you feel comfortable with them possibly being in contact with adults and strangers.
• We’d strongly advise you to follow the minimum age rating. If you do say yes, use strict privacy settings and either ‘friend’ your child or ask a family member to.

Make sure your child understands that people may hide behind fake profiles for dishonest reasons and the person they’ve been chatting to could easily be someone with bad intentions.

• Remind your child that they should never give out personal information to someone they don’t know online. Make sure they understand what personal information is. According to our research on average 6 out 10 of children’s online friends are not ‘real’ friends offline.
• Be clear with your child that they should never meet someone face to face without your consent. Show them how to block and report anything offensive. Your child should know they can come and talk to you if someone or something is making them feel uncomfortable online.

Talk together about peer pressure and how screens and anonymity can lead to behaviour that is hurtful.

No parent wants to think of their child hurting someone online through cyberbullying. To help them exhibit positive online behaviour you can:

• Explain bullying and cyberbullying to your child. Talk about the things they might see or read online.
• Discuss how to respond if they see offensive content online and what might be good, or not so good to share.
• Talk about the blurred line between uploading and sharing content because it’s funny or might get lots of ‘likes’ versus the potential to cause offence or hurt.

Stay calm, listen without judging and reassure your child that you can help. Discuss any action you may take together. Encourage them not to retaliate and to save any evidence.

Make sure they know that some people may not be who they say they are and tell your child how privacy settings can put them in control of who they talk to.

• Discuss what it means to be a ‘friend’ or a follower online, the pros and cons of having lots of these ‘friends’ and the importance of knowing that they’re people you can trust.
• Be clear that if someone doesn’t make you feel good about yourself, they’re no friend.
• Tell them about not replying to or blocking any followers they don’t know. Make sure they know never to meet up with anyone they have only ever met online and don’t know in person.

Talk together so they understand your concerns. Agree house rules on when and how long they can go online and which sites they should visit.

• It’s a good idea to give their eyes half an hour’s rest from the screen before bed.
• If it helps, tell your child that you’re putting your mobile or tablet away too – younger children are more likely to mirror your actions.
• Try using Forest – an app that gives your kids a great incentive to stay away from their screen. It lets them grow a forest full of trees and the longer they leave their phone untouched, the bigger the forest grows.

Discuss the reasons why they feel the need to share such images and the potential long-term impact this could have on them if the pictures are used without their consent.

Peer pressure and the desire for attention can be reasons why some children feel the need to share inappropriate photos with their online friends.

• Encourage them to share content that focuses on what they like to do rather than what they look like.
• Make sure they know that it is illegal to share naked images of themselves. We’d advise to wait until they’re emotionally mature to understand why they shouldn’t share such image before allowing them on social media.
• Talk to them about the importance of spending time with real friends without feeling the need to gain approval by getting a certain number of ‘likes’ on a photo they’ve shared.

Talk to them about who they’ve shared the information with and assess the risk it poses to your child. You can also ask your child to remove the information from their account and help them understand how to share safely.

• Make your child aware of the potential risks of sharing personal content online such as online grooming or cyberbullying.
• Help your child understand how to remove information that could pose a risk to them.
• Check that your child has set their social network account to ‘private’ so their shared information can only be seen by people they know. See our ‘how to guides‘ to find out how.