Is your child or teen glued continuously to social media platforms? Surveys show that more than a billion people use social media worldwide. While close to 75 percent of teens use social media platforms multiple times in a day, at least 45 percent admit they are always online.
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How much is too much?
According to a UNICEF based study spending a little time on social media can be “beneficial” in terms of developing a child’s social relationships. While platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or Twitter can help children and teens stay connected with friends or with what’s happening around the world, too much of screen time can damage health.
On average teens or older children spend 9 hours glued to their screen and studies show that just two hours per day on social media can lead to unhappiness and anxiety among teens. Experts believe children who are over-exposed to social media develop digital addiction that is as serious as drug dependency.
Children are also at increased risk for facing many other dangers in the form of stalking, abuse or fraud from strangers posing as friends on social media. Apart from deciding how much is too much, parents can take other measures to ensure their kids are using social media safely and responsibly.
Four ways to protect your child from social media abuse:
Monitor social media activity: Surveys show 71% of children and teens hide their online activities from parents. With minor children, however, not monitoring what they are up to can have devastating consequences and setting parental controls on social media is more important than respecting their right to privacy. Some apps that let parents control or monitor their child's social media usage are Norton, Teensafe, PhoneSheriff, MobSafetyRangerBrowser, DinnerTime, and Qustodio. With “DinnerTime,” you can limit internet usage during family meals, while Norton allows you to filter web content and set time limits for smartphone usage. TeenSafe enables parents to check social media activity, GPS, texts, and calls.
Ensure privacy settings: One way of protecting your children from social media abuse is to teach them how to use privacy settings on platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. With this, you can ensure your child’s posts, and photographs are not accessible to strangers. You can make your child's profile settings private which provides details such as home address, birthdates, and the name of your school are not visible to stalkers.
Warn about cyberbullying: Surveys indicate strangers or stalkers have contacted at least 29 percent of children while 41 percent of teens had negative experiences on social media. A lot of children come across sexist, racist, trolls and hate content on many social media platforms. Some of the signs that your child could be facing cyberbullying include anxiety, distress, fear or using a computer or going to school among others. Teach your children to recognize cyberbullying while reassuring them that they can talk about such negative experiences with you. Blocking the bully, reporting abuse or stalking to the concerned authorities and counseling the child are some ways to address cyberbullying.
Set limits: Have an open discussion with your child on the responsible use of social media, including time limits, types of photos or content they can share or post and about maintaining their online reputation.