How to make sure our kids facebook posts are appropriate

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If you have an underage child on Facebook – and this pertains to all ages of our kids on Facebook – We at Beauty Within Teen Esteem Foundation, strongly recommend that as part of the privilege and responsibility for using the site is that you be “friends” with your child.  This gives you an open door into what he/she posts, language used by them and others, unfamiliar friends, how much personal info they are sharing and choices they make. Parents need to set guidelines and boundaries with their children and let them know that your privilege for having a Facebook account comes only with complete and open access by you the parent. That to have this privilege you will be having ongoing discussion about “friends” on Facebook, posts and anything else you the parent feels necessary to discuss.  This is one way to help keep your child safe on line.

Aside from this, 13 is generally the age when kids start developing a broader understanding of the world around them and, along with that, a better sense of what's appropriate to share online. As young teens, kids also are developing a desire to control more of their activities as well as the maturity to handle that control.

If your kid is expressing interest in joining a social network, discuss the pros and cons and do your own research so you fully understand the implications of joining a particular network. If you want your kid to wait to sign up, consider pointing him or her toward more age-appropriate sites such as Yoursphere or Fanlala. Kuddle is also a quality Instagram substitute. It's also possible you can rally your kids' friends' parents to restrict their kids from Facebook, so you won't get that "but everyone is on it!" argument.

If your kid does end up joining a social network -- whether she's 10 or 16 -- here are some ground rules that work for many parents:
 
Tell your kids to think before they post. Remind them that everything can be seen by a vast, invisible audience (otherwise known as friends-of-friends-of-friends), and, once something's online, it's hard to take back.
Be respectful of others. Kids may use social media to act out because they feel anonymous and that their actions are consequence-free. Make sure they understand that the Internet is a giant community that works best when everyone respects each other.


The problem is that we never know who's really looking at our information.