Our parents could pretty safely stay ignorant of the technological advances of our day.
(By our parents and our day, I am referring to those of us who were the teens of the 90s. Back when the internet was pretty much all text and used primarily by nerds. Not a hotbed for sexual predators and teenagers who don’t realize that the nude photo they just posted didn’t really disappear after it faded from the screen.)
As parents of 2010s preteens and teens we do not have the luxury of being ignorant. We need to know what’s going on in our kids’ online worlds. We can’t play dumb. We can’t ignore it. We need to know what’s out there. We need to have full access to their phones and devices.
Oh my goodness, there’s such awful stuff going on out there in the virtual world that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around it. It’s quite possible our kids won’t even be looking for it when they are exposed. It will just show up in their lives via some stupid app on their phone. And things seen and heard and read cannot be unseen or unheard or unread.
Though my kids have barely dabbled in social media, I am scared for them. I don’t have a step-by-step plan, but I do have a step one, and that is to LEARN. EVERYTHING. I. CAN.
The following are links to some of the articles I’ve been reading over the past few days. If you have a kid with a smart phone and you are not familiar with the popular apps of the day, I encourage you to peruse the links I have listed below.
And if I figure out something other than Jesus’ second coming that would completely protect our kids from all the evils of the internet, I’ll let you know.
- 9 Most Dangerous Apps for Kids
- The Worst Apps for Kids
- 11 Sites and Apps Kids are Heading to After Facebook
- Psychiatrist’s View: Yik Yak is the Most Dangerous App I’ve Ever Seen
- 7 Dangers of Instagram for Kids
- 5 Dangerous Apps You Don’t Know Your Kids Are Using
Please feel free to share any advice you think might be helpful to me in my quest to protect my kids.
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