Monitoring Your Child’s Social Apps

Is it a surprise that one-third of children between the ages of seven and nine use social media applications on their cell phones or tablets? Or that one in two adolescents aged 10 to 12 views and uses them? According to a report from children’s health researchers at the University of Michigan, one in six parents was not using any parental controls. It’s time to monitor your child’s social Apps.

As businesses seek ways to reach and interact with specific audiences, the number of new digital platforms continues to grow. We cannot stop its growth or use, but we can contain and control how its content is used. 

Growth of Children’s Online Marketing Via Applications

The online revolution that began 15 years ago on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram as a generalized way to meet and interact has blossomed into deep data mining methods for reaching specific audiences with ‘content’ that appeals to them. 

Since 2017, new digital platforms focused on reaching younger groups have launched applications designed to appeal to our children’s interests—music, comedy, dance, food, beauty, games, and memes.

Meet Tik Tok. With its 15-second videos blurting tween, teen, and Gen Z visuals, sounds, and styles, this social app recently passed three billion mobile downloads. Maybe we should also start teaching science, tech, engineering, and math in 15-second segments!

Parents: Monitor Your Kids’ Social Media Apps and Time Spent Watching

But there’s a downside to all this social interaction. Young people see the world around them but may have no internal filters to guide them. So, parents need to monitor potential risks their children may find on social apps like: 

• Adult content
• Risky behaviors,
• Predators, and
• misleading, false, or non-sourced news

Technology Do’s and Don’ts

Regardless of how daunting today’s technology is, parents need to: 

•   Take the time to monitor what our kids are watching and posting 
•   Know whom our children are interacting with
•   Ensure that our children can’t find ‘loopholes’ to reach content we find objectionable
•   Set up controls, privacy settings, blocking, and passcodes to thwart the potential danger

Lifetime Montessori School: Your Partner in Promoting Safe Use of Social Media Apps for Kids

Cell phones and tablets are part of today’s online learning, friendships, and entertainment routines. Still, it is our parental prerogative to limit our children’s time spent and content viewed if it is not in keeping with our personal beliefs. It’s time to monitor your child’s social Apps. In so doing, parents can ensure that digital platforms are a privilege rather than a right.