After watching an episode of Supernanny last week where a 10 year old girl was talking to sixteen and seventeen year old boys on Facebook without her parents knowledge, it did make me wonder if parents really know enough about social networking sites to keep their children safe when they are using them and why did these parents not research the site and perhaps sign up for the site themselves before allowing their children to have access to the site? The mother didn't even know what the age limit was!
My mum is on Facebook and she insisted that I add her if she was to allow me to use the site, at first I thought this was out of order and an invasion of my privacy (as every 13 year of boy does) but now that I am older (15) in hindsight I feel that this was possibly the best thing that my mum could've done to ensure that I was being safe and responsible.
I feel that parents that do not research a social networking site, videogame or any type of software that their children are downloading are irresponsible parents, I am not saying that their overall parenting is bad but I am saying they are irresponsible for not conducting research on the site beforehand. Luckily, I am responsible enough know what to do and what not to do on social networks and have the knowledge and capability to sort my own privacy settings out without any help ( I did however let my dad look over them, just in case).
There may be a very simple reason as to why parents are not doing research. maybe it's because they don't really know how and have know way of being taught. In this case, the simplest solution would be for some companies to offer free courses that teaches the parents about the "scary" world of social media and schedule the classes for in the evening so that working parents are able to attend. Or maybe Facebook should offer a free course on their website that the parents could either watch and participate in on the internet or attend a venue.
There are many ways to allow parents to learn the right skills and have enough knowledge to keep their children safe, all people need to do is make it accessible enough for the solutions to be put into practice.
My mum is on Facebook and she insisted that I add her if she was to allow me to use the site, at first I thought this was out of order and an invasion of my privacy (as every 13 year of boy does) but now that I am older (15) in hindsight I feel that this was possibly the best thing that my mum could've done to ensure that I was being safe and responsible.
I feel that parents that do not research a social networking site, videogame or any type of software that their children are downloading are irresponsible parents, I am not saying that their overall parenting is bad but I am saying they are irresponsible for not conducting research on the site beforehand. Luckily, I am responsible enough know what to do and what not to do on social networks and have the knowledge and capability to sort my own privacy settings out without any help ( I did however let my dad look over them, just in case).
There may be a very simple reason as to why parents are not doing research. maybe it's because they don't really know how and have know way of being taught. In this case, the simplest solution would be for some companies to offer free courses that teaches the parents about the "scary" world of social media and schedule the classes for in the evening so that working parents are able to attend. Or maybe Facebook should offer a free course on their website that the parents could either watch and participate in on the internet or attend a venue.
There are many ways to allow parents to learn the right skills and have enough knowledge to keep their children safe, all people need to do is make it accessible enough for the solutions to be put into practice.
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