Kids and tweens often aren’t aware of how public things can be online. They may not understand that once they share a photo online they lose control of who sees the image and how it is used or altered. It is very easy to share a photo online but it is not so easy to take it down. Within minutes a photo can be shared with thousands of people. Even if your children use private messages or apps to share photos it’s still very easy for people to take a screenshot or photo of what they’ve shared. These people can then share your child’s picture wherever they like. They might even decide to make an embarrassing meme out of the photo.
2. The Granny Rule
When young people first go online it can be difficult for them to figure out the boundary between what should go online and what should stay offline. It’s a good idea to talk with your kids about what photos they share online and with their friends. Highlight to them that it’s important that they never take photos where people expect privacy or share photos of a more personal nature. One way of helping your children decide if a photo is okay to share online is The Granny Rule; if they wouldn’t show a particular photo to their granny then it probably shouldn’t be online!
3. Respect others
As well as thinking about how sharing a photo might affect your kids themselves,you should also chat about how sharing images might affect the other people in the pictures. If the photo might embarrass or get someone in trouble,encourage your child to be responsible and delete the photo. He or she might think it’s okay to share a picture with a private group of friends. However, sharing a digital image is like telling a secret to someone. Once it’s shared once, the photo could end up anywhere!
4. Watch your space
If your children have social networking profiles where people can post comments on their photos, highlight the importance of checking these comments regularly. If they receive comments that annoy or anger them, they should avoid replying. Instead they should delete the comment, block the person, and report the incident to the website owner or service provider.
5. Who and where
It’s not a good idea to give away online who you are and where you are at the same time. By sharing and tagging photos in real time and publicising what s/he is doing, your child might leave him/herself vulnerable. Indeed we’ve all heard about burglaries that took place when someone’s holiday photos inadvertently advertised the fact that their house was empty for the week. Remind your child to be careful about sharing too many personal details online through their photos.
6. Know who can see you.
Before your children join social networking services, talk to them about the privacy settings and options available. Many sites allow you to decide which parts of your profile can be accessed by others. Assume that everything is public unless you are sure that it isn’t. Opting for private doesn’t always mean that only friends can see your child’s profile. In some cases, everything your child puts on his/her profile can be seen by everyone but only friends can post comments or IM him/her. You should also stress the point that profile photos are nearly always available for everyone to see.
7. “Friends” and friends
Talk with your children about being selective about who they become friends with; you can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep. If a guy your daughter doesn’t know ‘adds’ her and he has nothing but half-dressed girls on his page, she shouldn’t add him back. Even though they are called friends, people you ‘add’ are really little more than acquaintances, nobody has 500 friends. Add people you know. Be as popular as you are or aren't. As soon as your child adds a friend online he/she usually gives that person access to all of his/her photos and online content.
8. Talk about apps
Get to know the apps and services your children are using by having them show you how they work. You might also find the Explainers on Webwise useful for getting the facts on some the most popular services used by young people, such as Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp.
9. What to do when something goes wrong
If someone makes contact with your child in an inappropriate or hurtful way, advise your child to block them, keep the message or comment as evidence, and report them to the owner of the website. Don’t respond to bullying or harassing contacts: this just creates more trouble. In the case of bullying messages encourage your child to tell an adult, who he or she trusts.Your child might talk to you or a teacher or guidance counsellor about it. Your child’s school should be able to take some action as they all have bullying policies that cover this kind of thing.
10. Help is out there
More serious cases that could be illegal, such as if someone makes inappropriate sexual suggestions or is ‘grooming’ an under-16, can be reported anonymously to www.hotline.ie. All reports are taken very seriously and passed on to the Gardaí when appropriate. If your child needs someone to talk to they can call Childline at 1800 666 666. The National Parents’ Council operate a helpline for parents in need of advice. You can reach them at 01-8874477.
These tips were thanks to Webwise.
