As social media becomes an increasingly prominent part of our lives, it’s crucial to educate children on how to use it correctly and the dangers online. In this post we share guidance put together by a prep school in Twickenham for parents on teaching children to use social media wisely.

Talk About Their Usage

Before telling them all about social media and how not to use it, see if your child is already on any of the platforms and explore their usage together. It will give you a good idea of the kind of issues to address and help you explain themes in a way that makes sense to them.

Talk About Positive and Negative Behaviours

While you’re not directly face to face, manners and respect are no less important online. Mean comments are just as hurtful, and children should refrain from saying anything unkind.

Making Use of the Tools Available

To help protect its users, social media platforms have a range of tools accessible. Most if not, all allow users to restrict who is able to view their profile and posts. For children this is key as there's an increased risk of stranger danger online with individuals being able to hide behind fake profiles. Other tools that you may want to explore with your child are blocking and reporting features that let users flag concerns and block others from being able to interact with them online.

Adding Strangers

As well as utilising the features mentioned above, children must be wary of who they add online as it’s quite easy for people to be impersonated. For this reason, we advise that children only add who they know in real life.

Oversharing

Oversharing is something else that children must be mindful of. They must not share sensitive information, such as where they live, banking details, passwords, their address etc online.

Follow Your Own Advice

While instructing your child to abide by these rules, you must also lead by example and do so yourself to send the right message.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.