It can be a worrying moment when your child asks if they can open their first social media account. Questions abound. How will SM affect their life? How will it affect your life? How will it affect your Wi-Fi usage? Rest assured that simply creating a SM account won’t automatically put your child at risk of becoming a self-proclaimed ‘influencer’ or a connoisseur of dog-filters. Nor will they necessarily become an online food critic with a blog exclusively reviewing your cooking. There definitely are real risks however, and here we will address some important considerations for parents of young people entering the volatile world social media.
Letting your child have their own SM account is about giving them control of their own online presence. It is essential that they learn how to navigate this at some point in their life. The big question is when.