Instagram and teens: How to keep your kids safe – Guide
For many parents, this week’s revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen showing Facebook’s internal studies of Instagram’s harm to teens only heightened concerns about the popular photo-sharing app. “The standards that children set as teenagers stay with them for the rest of their lives,” Haugen said in Senate testimony on Tuesday. “Children who are bullied on Instagram, bullying follows them home. He follows them to their rooms. The last thing they see before they go to bed at night is someone being mean to them,” Haugen said. “Children are learning that their own friends, people they care about, are cruel to them.” So what can you do to protect your children? Experts say open lines of communication, age limits and, if necessary, activity monitoring are some of the steps parents can take to help children navigate the dangers of social media, while allowing them to chat with peers. on its own terms.
17 is the new 13?
Ever wonder why 13 is the age kids can be on Instagram and other social media apps? It’s because the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act went into effect in 2000 – even before today’s teenagers were born (and when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, he was also just a teenager). The goal was to protect children’s online privacy by requiring websites and online services to post clear privacy policies and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information about their children, among other things. To comply, social media companies generally banned children under the age of 13 from subscribing up for their services, although it is widely documented that children subscribe up anyway, with or without parental permission. But times have changed and online privacy is no longer the only concern when it comes to kids being online. There is bullying, harassment and, as Facebook’s own research has shown, the risk of developing eating disorders, suicidal thoughts or worse. In his testimony, Haugen suggested raising the age limit to 16 or even 18 years. There was pressure among some parents, educators and technology experts to wait to give to their children phones – and access to social networks – until they get older, like the promise “Wait until 8th grade”, which makes parents sign a commitment not to give their children a smartphone until 8th grade. But neither social media companies nor the government have done anything concrete to raise the age limit. “There is not necessarily a magical era,” said Christine Elgersma, social media expert at the nonprofit Common Sense Media. But, she added, “13 is probably not the best age for kids to join social media.” It’s still complicated. There is no reliable way to verify a person’s age when they sign up for online applications and services. And the apps popular with today’s teens were created for adults first. Companies have added some safeguards over the years, noted Elgersma, but these are gradual changes, not fundamental service rethinks. “Developers need to start building apps with kids in mind,” she said. And no, she’s not referring to Instagram Kids, the Facebook project paused last week amid widespread backlash. “We can’t trust a company that didn’t start out with children’s best interests in mind,” she said. Facebook says it has added a number of safeguards and features to improve teen well-being on Instagram over the years, as mental health support for people looking for common hashtags associated with eating disorders or self-harm. The company also tested hiding “like” counts as part of a program called “which means when you post something, if you’re a young person, you don’t have to worry about how many people will like your post and whether people will see it” , said Monika Bickert, head of global policy management at Facebook. But Facebook’s own researchers found that hiding the counts didn’t help teens feel better.
Talk Talk talk
Start early, sooner than you think. Elgersma suggests that parents access their own social media feeds with their children before they are old enough to go online and have open discussions about what they see. How would your child handle a situation where a friend of a friend asks you to submit a photo? Or what if they see an article that makes them so angry they just want to share it right away? For older children, approach them with curiosity and interest. “Whether teenagers are grunting or one-word answers, sometimes asking what their friends are up to or just not asking direct questions like ‘what are you doing on Instagram?’ but ‘hey, I hear this influencer is very popular,’” she suggested. “And even if your son rolled his eyes, it could be a window.” Don’t say things like “turn that thing off” when your child has been using the screen for a long time, says Jean Rogers, director of Fairplay, a nonprofit that advocates for children to spend less time on digital devices. “That’s not respectful,” Rogers said. “It doesn’t respect that they have a whole life and a whole world on that device.” Instead, Rogers suggests asking questions about what they do on their phone and see what your child is willing to share. Children also tend to respond to parents and educators who “open the curtains” on social media and the sometimes insidious tools that companies use to keep people online and engaged, said Elgersma. Watch a documentary like “The Social Dilemma,” which explores algorithms, obscure patterns, and dopamine feedback loops on social media. or read up with them like Facebook and TikTok make money. “Kids love to know about these things and it will give them a sense of power,” she said. Vicky Lacksonen, a 53-year-old mother in Mount Vernon, Ohio, says she is just trying to talk to her son. She knows the child’s passwords phone and sometimes pokes him to put his phone down if he’s been on it for a while. But as long as your 14 year old keeps his grades up and he’s doing activities he likes, like football, she mostly lets him have privacy on his smartphone and on apps like Instagram. “You really don’t know what they’re looking at,” Lacksonen said. “Having these conversations and talking to them is already a big part… and don’t be afraid to ask questions.”
setting limits
Rogers says most parents are successful in bringing their children phones overnight to limit your scrolling. Occasionally children may try to steal the phone back, but it’s a strategy that tends to work because kids need a break from the screen. “They need an excuse with their peers not to be in their phone at night,” Rogers said. “They can blame their parents.” Parents may need their own limits on phone to use. Rogers said it’s helpful to explain what you’re doing when you have a phone in hand around your child so that he understands you are not aimlessly browsing sites like Instagram. Tell your child you’re checking email at work, looking for up a recipe for dinner or to pay a bill so they understand you’re not just there for fun. Then tell them when you plan to put the phone low.
you can’t do it alone
Parents should also realize that it’s not a fair fight. Social media apps like Instagram are designed to be addictive, says Roxana Marachi, a professor of education at San Jose State University who studies data damage. Without new laws governing how tech companies use our data and algorithms to push users toward harmful content, there is a limit to what parents can do, Marachi said. “Companies are not interested in the welfare of children, they are interested in looking at the screen and maximizing the number of clicks.” Marachi said. “Time course.”
Final note
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