Introduce children to social networks
Controlling children’s activities on social networks
As you prepare your children for life in the real world, you must prepare them for virtual and online social networking. Social networks are on the rise, and research has shown that 22% of teens under the age of 20 access their favorite social networks more than ten times a day, and 74% of them have a mobile phone.
Internet laws prevent children under the age of 13 from joining most social networks, but still, every day more than 20,000 children try to access sites like Facebook without the help of their parents or even with their cooperation.
Technology is a useful, integral, and often interesting part of today’s world that is essential. In the United States alone, a large portion of people are members of Facebook, with 90 million people using Instagram and 17% of Americans using Twitter, indicating a massive interest in social media. Therefore, children can not be separated from this group because they also tend to connect with their friends and be part of an attractive online community.
Laws prohibit children under the age of 13 from joining social networks
But for this purpose, teach your children about the cyber world as you prepare for the real world. Initiate this with a lot of control and restraint, and after the children have learned the specific technical skills, slowly give them the freedom to make their own choices.
First, teach children sites and apps that teach valuable skills. Parents can teach their children about rules and regulations, safety, and self-control on social media for several years and then release them. In this case, children at the age of 13 have learned all the necessary skills to enter social networks.
At first, it is better for children to get acquainted with safer alternatives to sites such as Facebook or Instagram and Twitter, and play online games, for example. In these games, players can talk to each other about the game routine.
Using these apps is a good idea for children to enter the virtual world more safely, but it still requires the cooperation of parents. They must be present in these games like other players and monitor the condition of their child.
Social media will eventually attract children, but with the right education and guidance from parents, this entry will be much safer.
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