Category: Social Media Safety

School’s out, and that means your kids have lots of time free to spend online chatting, making plans with friends, and posting fun summertime photos—sometimes without you there to supervise. If that gives you anxiety, fear not. Here are four steps that will keep keep your child safe online this summer.

Set Rules for Responsible Use

Sit down with your children and talk frankly about why you care about their internet safety, covering big topics like cyberbullying or identity theft in a way that matches their maturity level. Then work together to define clear, understandable rules for their online interactions. Here are a few basics to consider:

• Never post personal info like addresses and phone numbers on social media.

• Avoid location check-ins and photo geo-tagging, which can be used to track where you are as well as when you are away from home.

• Be wary of free games and other goodies, which can infect your devices with malware. Keep security software up to date and scan everything before downloading.

• Use secure passwords and protect them. There are several password managers out there that can generate strong passwords and store them all in one place.

Once you’ve agreed upon the ground rules for online safety, put them into a contract to be signed by everyone in the family.

Follow Your Own Rules

This is an important follow-up to the previous rule. You want your kids not to text or go online after 10 p.m.? Shut down your phone and laptop at the same time.

Don’t want them posting embarrassing photos of you? Let them veto pictures they may not be happy with you sharing on social media, too.

If you can adhere to the rules you and your kids built together, they will feel more inclined to do so as well.

Build Your Child’s Critical Thinking Skills

In a world abounding with fake news, help your kids think critically about any content they find online. Encourage older kids especially to fact-check stories before reposting on Facebook or commenting on Twitter.

Teach them to question their own motives as well. Just because a comment will generate a lot of likes, that doesn’t mean they should post it. Even one poorly chosen post can cause problems down the line.

The Family Online Safety Institute has also developed a checklist that includes reminders to remove and untag unwanted posts, and to “accentuate the positive” by posting upbeat content.

Let Your Kids Know You Will Still Monitor Online Usage

Finally, let your kids know that you may occasionally check up on their activity. Being upfront about your plans to look at their browser history and monitor their accounts will establish a sense of trust and keep them accountable.

Also, consider working with them to limit their time spend on social media during the many free hours that come with having a long school break.  

For young kids who need a bit more oversight, there are plenty of helpful apps available to let you keep an eye on them.

Older kids and teens may not need (or want) as much monitoring, so for them, you may be able to check in less often. To really emphasize trust, you can even ask them to put their passwords into a piggy bank for use only in an emergency.

The internet can be a great resource for helping kids learn and be social during their school-free summer months, and following the steps listed here will help them do so smartly, responsibly, and safely.

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Social media is now part of everyday living.  We check it on the bus when going to work, during lunch breaks, and after school. For many, it is the first thing they check before getting out of bed in the morning. Social media is entrenched into the lives of children as well. It can be difficult for them to break away from it.

Long hours spent on social media could negatively affect a child’s mental health.  Some of these adverse effects include:

Causes Low Self-Esteem in Children and Teens

This is probably the greatest effect of social media on children. On a platform like Instagram, people post pictures while having fun, show off their new homes, their perfect parents who take them on vacations abroad, etc. This can make a child still in the emotional development stage compare what they see on social media and their lives. Teenagers also use social media to bully, send negative pictures and exert peer pressure on their schoolmates, which negatively affects the victim’s self-esteem.

1. Anxiety

Many teenagers and adults can feel anxious because of social media. They feel pressured to constantly post perfect photos and equally good posts to accompany the photos. There are unspoken rules in social media that are difficult to keep up with, leading to teenagers experiencing high anxiety levels. Young people view a lot of content on what their idols, peers, and friends are doing, making them feel left out. If they post something on social media and it does not get enough comments and likes as their friends, they may feel anxious and inadequate.

This can be a problem for young adults having anxiety issues because social media can exacerbate the problem. Girls feel anxious online as they are susceptible to worrying about how they look and be negatively affected by slut-shaming and cyberbullying.

2. Sleep Issues

Social media is addictive, and teenagers and children can talk with their friends and get caught up in posting for long periods. This can affect their sleep quality and sleeping patterns, impacting their mental health. Lack of sleep can affect a young adult in many ways. They may drop their grades, get moody and tired during the day, and have difficulty concentrating in class.

Also, increased screen time is associated with attention hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, which include emotional regulation, poor attention span, and sleeping problems. A teenager’s brain is still developing, and they require at least eight hours of quality sleep every night. Prolonged use of social media can affect both the quality of sleep and the amount of sleep, worsening mental health condition symptoms, including anxiety and depression.

3. Reduced Physical Activity

Increased screen time leads to less physical activity. Teenagers and children spend a lot of time online and less time taking part in active play. Furthermore, people drink and eat carelessly while playing an online game or watching TV, which packs more calories on their bodies leading to weight gain. Lack of physical activity and obesity leads to numerous health problems, including depression, respiratory issues, heart diseases, and diabetes.

How to Lessen the Effects of Social Media on Children’s Mental Health

• Talk about social media. Talk to your child about the effects of social media and gauge how they feel about it. Do they like it, or does it make them worried and anxious? Educate your child about social media and help them understand that what goes on social media can have repercussions in real life. If your teen is too far gone into social media, you can enroll them in cognitive behavioral therapy to help them know how their feelings, thoughts, and behavior are related. This will help them identify and change unhelpful thought behaviors and patterns.

• Limit social media use. This can especially work for younger children. Although they may resist at first, the limitations will eventually benefit them.

• Be a role model. As an adult, you should be a good example by putting away your devices at mealtimes, limiting your social media time, and having specific times when you do not touch any technological device. Your child or teen will follow in your footsteps and have an improved relationship with social media.

Encourage your children to get out more by engaging in physical activity yourself. You can also participate in online games that encourage dance and movement, such as yoga and aerobics. All of these ideas combined will help your child form a healthy relationship with social media and create better balance in their lives.

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Discord has been gaining popularity as one of the most popular free audio, video, calling, and chatting services.  It initially gained popularity as a gaming and chat platform, but is now trying to reinvent itself as a place where like-minded people can socialize and discuss. Discord usage for business has even been increasing.

Parents often ask this relevant question about Discord since teens are the app’s intended audience. If your child uses Discord, should you be worried? How can you protect your kids from cyberbullying and harassment on Discord?

Even though Discord can be used safely with adequate precautions, it still comes with risks, just like every other open-chat program.

Read this article to get all the necessary information about Discord and to know Is Discord safe for kids?

What Is Discord?

Discord is a free application for PC and mobile that allows people to chat via text, voice, or video.

By combining Skype’s internet call features with Reddit-like discussion boards, it has diversified from a forum for gamers only to one for communities with a wide variety of interests, including anime, TV series, music, and more. Also, it can be used to chat with friends in a group.

Discord, which was founded in 2015, is a platform that brings individuals together with similar likes and interests. Video game players use it to communicate and develop a sense of community outside of the games themselves.

Over the years, it has expanded into an entire social network with over 140 million active monthly users. Gamers are no longer their only users.

Working of Discord

It is essential to have a clear understanding of the word ‘server’ to grasp how Discord works. Servers are like groups of users that can discuss a topic or game together, and users can also create a server to play with friends and other players.

Users can make servers public or private, depending on their choice. If the users choose to make the server public, everyone can join the server. And if the user makes the server private, only people with links can join. Whenever users invite their friends to the private server, they will get a link to join the server.

You can also divide existing servers into voice and text channels for specific discussion topics. The server owner can also set their own rules regarding what content to allow and how many people they can join their server.

Is Discord Safe?

Discord can be used safely with the correct privacy settings and monitoring. Nevertheless, open chat on sites and apps always poses a risk. Use Discord safely by accepting only friend requests from people you already know and joining private servers.

There have been instances when predators have used Discord’s public servers to send direct messages to children, although it’s rare. Despite the fact that server moderators are typically quick to intervene, kids and parents should learn how to spot creeps and online predators.

Discord is an open-chat platform, and like every other open-chat platform, it is also unveiled to different cyber threats if necessary precautions are not taken. Discord users are at risk of data breaches and undesired content.

The safety of Discord depends upon the intensity of security measures adopted by users. The only way to ensure the safety of users on Discord is to adopt safe practices while using this application.

Risks of Using Discord

Discord can be a beneficial app, but it is also dangerous and harmful for kids if necessary precautions are not taken while using this app. Discord is an open-chat platform, and like every other open-chat platform, it is also unveiled to different cyber threats if necessary precautions are not taken.

Discord comes with a number of risks. A few of them are mentioned below:

●     Discord makes Cyberbullying easier

Discord is an open-chat platform that allows users to chat with their friends, families, and strangers. It is more prevalent among teens and kids as a social network for gaming chatting, and streaming.

However, Kids and teens are also using this app for bullying. Discord provides a feature in which audio and video streams disappear, making it easier for bullies to bully others without leaving any evidence on Discord.

●     Easy for predators to contact children using Discord

Discord allows its users to meet and chat with strangers, and like other open-chat platforms, people on Discord can also lie about their identity or who they are? Predators can manipulate and stalk your kids via Discord.

Predators can send inappropriate content, images, videos, audios, etc., to your kids, or they can blackmail your kids. They can even groom your kids to perform some unbefitting tasks, which can be harmful to your kids.

●     Difficult to Moderate

Like many others, open-chat and private communication app discord is dangerous as it is challenging to control real-time communication. Audio and video streams disappear in Discord.

An individual server carries out the content moderation process. Hence the groups have servers of different standards, and some of the servers are administered better than others.

Users can report issues to Discord directly, but this is a time-consuming process, and your child may gain access to or be exposed to improper content.

●     Kids may get access to pornography and Exploitation

Discord has lots of private groups, including groups of criminal activity, child pornography, etc. These groups can trap your kids and expose these types of adult content to your kids.

However, Discord is trying to solve this problem by breaking down pornography and criminal activities groups.  It is still a better alternative than Mastodon, which is offers more freedom without restrictions.

What’s Good About Discord?

Despite the risks of Discord, it has some positive aspects. There are a lot of chat apps out there, but Discord stands out because of its simple UI. It doesn’t take up too much space on the device and allows youngsters to communicate with their real-life pals while playing a virtual game.

Discord has been a social savior for many teenagers and kids during the pandemic. They use Discord to stream movies and games with friends to kill time and get over boredom.

Another advantage is secrecy. Teenagers can use Discord to avoid public conversation in games where strangers disparage others or share inappropriate stuff.

Discord’s concentration on interest groups also helps kids connect with others who share their passions without sifting through unnecessary postings or ads they might see on other social media platforms.

The Bottom Line

If your kid can safely use Discord, it can be a way to interact with their real-life pals via gaming when they can’t be together in person. They might be able to find a group interested in discussing their common interests.

On the other hand, Discord will always be a riskier software to use due to the lack of parental controls. Consider whether the benefits of Discord outweigh the risks. If you decide to let your children use this app, make sure they have an internal filter installed to keep them safe while they’re online.

Everyone has heard a lot about TikTok. Since its introduction, it has been incredibly popular and one of the most actively downloaded applications. Many celebrities and bloggers have their accounts there, in order to promote their content, while ordinary users watch the viral videos.

According to a 2021 study, TikTok has over 1 billion active users. Every day over 50 million people use this application.

We can only rejoice for app developers and creators and their success. However, there is a dark side. The incredibly popular networks are dangerous for kids’ online safety. Parents whose kids love to spend a lot of time on the phone should set up social media for kids and also take parental control seriously, as innocuous actions can backfire.

In this article, we will talk about the dangers of the TikTok app. We will tell you how to make safety settings and give some safety tips for your children.

What is the Danger of TikTok?

When buying a phone for our children, we do this so that our kids are always in touch and we know where they are. However, in the era of using the World Wide Web, it is impossible to keep track of all the actions of the child on the phone. Some parents do not even realize how reckless actions on the Internet can lead to dire consequences.

On the one hand, with the help of TikTok videos, they can learn a lot of new things thanks to educational content. They can observe other people’s talents and this can inspire them to find a new hobby. However, besides all this, there are also dangerous things.

Video 18+

Recommendations that are selected for viewing using the TikTok algorithms of the application can offer completely different videos for viewing. Initially, your child may watch funny videos with kittens and dogs, and the next one may be 18+ videos or clips where injuries are inflicted, or there is a conversation about the meaninglessness of life.

Application developers conduct regular work to track negative content, but such work cannot be done promptly.

Moreover, open profiles of children can lead to the fact that pedophiles or other unfriendly people can communicate with your child and force them to perform immoral actions. First of all, you need to set up your child’s account, make the account private, so that only friends can write messages and watch videos. Secondly, for your peace of mind, you can install a parental controls on a phone, which will monitor all of your child’s activity when you are not around and send you alerts, including apps inspired by TikTok.

Intimidation

Many children not only watch videos of other users, but also upload their videos, repeating trends and challenges. It seems quite harmless, but if your child provides personal information, then people with bad intentions can send messages and encourage them to shoot a video of a sexual nature, or simply send messages with threats that humiliate and insult your child. This can lead to the fact that your children become afraid and they may have thoughts of leaving life.

In order to avoid bullying, you should have a conversation with your child and explain that in no case, in any applications, they cannot indicate their personal information and place of residence. Explain that not all videos are good and harmless.

Also, do not prohibit the child from using these applications. Because everyone knows that when something is forbidden, it becomes what we desperately want. In this case, your child will hide many things from you. You should have a serious conversation with your child and explain in a calm tone how their actions on the Internet can turn out. Your job needs to include establishing trusting relationships and raising confident children.

How to make TikTok safe for your kid

How safe is the app for young children?

This year, the app has updated privacy settings to ensure that the app can be used by children over the age of 13. When registering, the application automatically makes the account private. Also, if children create their video, then only their friends, confirmed users of the application, can view it.

However, don’t completely rely on these settings. Many children may indicate that they are over 18 when registering and viewing adult content. Therefore, make sure your child’s account is private, and also check friends who can watch videos your child has posted.

Controlling content and personal interactions

One of the most invasive features of TikTok is the ability for users to go “live” after they have a certain number of followers.  Once they are streaming live, anyone can join and interact with the host in the chat.  The host can also allow individual viewers to go live with them on a split screen while everyone else watches. This can go sideways fast if a stranger taking part in the live event has anterior motives when connecting with a minor.

This is one of the many reasons to set up parental controls on TikTok to protect kids. The app allows you to link your account with your child’s account. To do this, you need to use the “Family Pairing” and “Digital Wellbeing” functions. Thanks to these functions, you get the opportunity to view personal correspondence with other users, set up restrictions on the use of the application, set time limits, and you can also prohibit viewing adult content.

Data collection

It’s no secret that many apps and social networks store your personal information. Moreover, TikTok sends your data to many companies and advertisers so that you can receive interesting advertising offers in the recommendation feed. If anyone has carefully read the privacy policy of this application, then you are well aware of this.

However, there is one thing that is not mentioned anywhere. When you are not using TikTok, but using other applications, then it collects all your data, such as passwords, bank card details, and other personal information.

Conclusion

The world of the Internet is incredibly exciting, but also dangerous, especially for children. Unsuspectingly, your children can fall prey to intruders and provide them with their personal information. Parents should get serious about Internet safety, review all the app settings that enable privacy features. Also, be sure to have a conversation with your child and explain what good and bad things are. It is not enough just to prohibit doing something, it is necessary to provide explanations so that your child learns to understand that many actions in applications can lead to sad consequences.

About the Author:
Ben Jacklin is an expert writer in software reviews and tutorials. He has qualifications in Media and Music Technology and has been blogging about  tech support since his teenage years. He writes on a variety of topics, including the latest trends in the world of media, gaming, and education, with a focus on providing high-quality and safe programs that might be useful for his readers.