One of the largest and famous social networking sites in today’s era is Facebook. From approximately over 100 million registered users the large percentage is composed of teens, or even younger. Online dangers like cyber spies, cyber bullying, sexual predators, identity theft and a lot more are alarming and should not be ignored. These cybercriminals gain access to personal information in social networking sites including Facebook among others and gain profit from the data they can get. To protect your child from cyberspace predators and other unfavourable incidents, you as parent may consider the following safety measures.
- Parental supervision is highly needed. It is advisable to install security applications like Net Nanny for you to monitor your child’s online activities. Updated and configured anti-virus must also be installed, opt to seek an expert who knows about this helpful application to guide you through.
- Advise your kid to limit personal data shared on networking sites because sharing information is a big deal. Never accept friend requests from unknown persons and never trust people online instantly. It is just actually the same as do not talk to strangers in real life as we often remind them. Advise your children not to fill up the home address in full, the City and Country from where are they from is enough. Posting significant personal details can attract the wrong kind of attention.
- Instruct them to use a strong password and ensure your child never discloses their password to anyone, even to his close friend.
- Teach them how to use the privacy settings of their account. Uploaded photos and photo albums must only be seen by closest friends, families and relatives. If possible ask your child to add you in his friend’s list so you can access and check your child’s friends list too.
- Explain elaborately the pros and cons of having a networking account. For them it may seem harmless, but there are a lot of hidden dangers so give them full understanding why their network account must be fully secured.
Having many friends in social networking sites is fun, hanging around with friends chatting, exchanging ideas, photo sharing, new finds and more can bring excitement. However, it is advised to encourage them to engage more in the real world activities, playing soccer or biking or other outdoor activities with friends can truly be more enjoyable, to divert their attention lessening online presence.