A while back, I wrote a post about social media and how it influences teen relationships and friendships. I argued hopefully somewhat effectively and coherently that social media websites such as Facebook and MySpace are actually beneficial to teen development and that they help foster deeper and more intricate relationships. But at what point is privacy invasion necessary to protect your children from websites that could potentially endanger them? In a world where people create websites that provide instructions for developing a bomb, it’s really difficult to argue against parental involvement.Though I argued once before that parents should stay out of their child’s social media presence and allow them to freely use these sites, I feel I cannot make the same argument for the entire Internet. At a certain point, the birds and the bees of Internet safety are unavoidable. It is up to parents, not teachers or school administrators, to sit down with their children and explain how to safely use the Internet. Fortunately, modern parents don’t have as much of an excuse as my parents did ten years ago when I started using America Online to chat with my friends or go into chat rooms. Since neither of my parents worked in offices, they had limited interaction with computers and therefore, couldn’t make heads or tails of what I was doing. Dial-up connection probably protected me best. Today’s parents are familiar with the web and use it themselves, and many most likely have Facebook accounts either for networking or socializing. Though the youth will always have a better understanding of technology, there’s still plenty they will choose to ignore simply because they’re young. Even at 21, I know the feeling of invincibility is a curse inflicted, maybe even wasted, upon the youth.Most kids don’t want to deal with helicopter parents who hover over them and control what they do. Once the early teen years arrive, they generally want their space and privacy. Blogger Nancy Gibbs for Time online writes, “Most of us were probably less than immaculately honest as teenagers; it’s practically encoded into adolescence that you savor your secrets, dress in disguise, carve out some space for experiments and accidents and all the combustible lab work of becoming who you are.” Secrecy is a part of growing up. The best way to protect your child from harm is just to illustrate the risks involved. In the end, not unlike your own experience, mistakes will only serve as a reminder that parents might actually know what they’re talking about… and you can always say, “I told you so!”To check out the Time Mag blog click here.
Related posts:
- The Big, Bad Social Media Butterfly and Your Teen
- Young children and the internet – uses and safety
- Speakaboos partners with Glubble.com, a new online tool for families and kids
- Parental Involvement
- The”Only Child Myth”through the eyes of an only child
