Social Media for Tweens & Teens

Social Media platforms continue to grow in popularity with tween and teens. Like most of our parenting decisions, it’s important to have an overall view of how it works – the good, the bad and the ugly.

Social Media platforms all have an age rating attached to them in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. If your child does not meet this requirement and asks for an account, then the answer should be a flat out ‘no.’

There are very good reasons why they state an age and Australia, in comparison to many other countries who require age of 17+, is very lenient. But before you go allowing your child to have an account just because they meet the age requirement, you should stop and consider a number of things.

How mature are they?

Have you been educating them about cyber safety?

How would they react to an unpleasant comment from a friend?

Tween/Teens using social media isn’t all bad. If you have spent time preparing them there can actually be benefits. Having a social media account can help them to strengthen friendships, give them a sense of belonging, make them feel supported and help to expose them to important worldwide issues.

And the risks of social media? Well, once your child has an account they are open to being exposed to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, privacy issues, mental health problems and online grooming.

If your tween or teen already has an account then you should educate yourself on the functionality of that specific platform.

Is it image based?

Can messages and images ‘disappear’?

Can snapshots be taken of disappearing images?

Is their location visible?

Help your child to walk through the privacy settings. Remind them about sharing (ie. Text or pictures of location, uniform, house, siblings etc). Talk to them about being kind online. You can create your own account if you don’t already have one and friend them. You don’t need to stalk them, respect their online space but it does help a child to remember to think about what they are posting when they know that you might see it.

But be aware.

Kids will often create a second account – one that their parents don’t know about and can’t see. It might be an option to have a trusted, cooler older Aunt or Cousin follow them.

Help them make decisions on who they ‘friend’ or ‘follow.’ Ideally, they should know the person in real life. They should be careful about letting someone they don’t know follow them just because they appear to be friends with a group of their friends. Quite often, this person is not who they say they are.

And finally. Kids need to understand that social media accounts (even with privacy settings on) create their online presence. We’ve all heard the saying “what goes online, stays online.” And once something is online, it is there for all to see. Their social media accounts are creating a digital footprint and in this technology age, many prospective employers, sporting teams and volunteer programs will hop online and see the life they have been walking.

The best advice to give a tween/teen with a social media account? Get them to ask themselves – would I be OK with Nana seeing this?