How to Limit Your Kids Social Media Use

Your kids shouldn’t use social media more than you allow. Unfortunately, it can be extremely difficult to keep it limited in your home.

Social media isn’t the root of all evil, it’s simply a space for people to be social. Unfortunately, these online platforms make it easy for your kids to get into trouble and become prey to some predators. These platforms also make it easy for kids to stare at their devices for hours at a time, which can be a serious waste of their time.

Here are some tips to limit the amount of time and ways your kids use social media.

How many social media platforms are there?

At one time, the only social media sites were Myspace and Facebook. Today, new sites are popping up each year, giving us various ways to connect online socially. Every time there’s a new platform, it’s a new opportunity for your kids to become prey or get bullied online, mostly by people they don’t know and who don’t know them. Do your homework regarding the number of platforms and how your kids are using them.

Set clear and understandable limits

Some social media sites help you with this by disallowing anyone who enters a birthdate that isn’t at least 13 years in the past. Unfortunately, its pretty easy to get around these limits. Its up to you as the parent to set the age at which you’ll allow your kids to use social media and for how long every day. You might need to set the times of the day when your kids can use their devices and these social sites.

Check the privacy settings

Setting limits is only part of what you need to do with your kids and their online use. It’s important that you regularly check the privacy settings of their accounts. Explain to them why it’s important to keep their profiles private and what it means to have a public or private profile. Add important security settings to protect your kids. This helps keep them out of trouble on social platforms and helps them avoid a situation they won’t know how to get out of.

Check their posts regularly

Your kids can often be trusting individuals, and you want them to trust some adults and certainly authority figures. When it comes to online usage, the story is completely different. It’s important that your kids don’t post things on social media that will cause them or you problems. This means keeping personal information such as phone numbers, addresses, or current locations off these platforms. This could come off as a little bit of a mixed message because many adults post check-ins and location information, but you don’t want your kids doing the same.

Monitor the photos they post online

Limiting what your kids do online also means helping them avoid posting videos or photos that could come back and haunt them later in life. This means avoiding items that will put their safety or character in harm’s way. If a post can be taken out of context easily, it’s important to avoid posting it. You need to explain this to your children as well and help them avoid problems with these social platforms. Tell your children to keep things positive when online.

Help them choose a strong password

Passwords aren’t fun for anyone to deal with, and it’s extremely important that your kids choose passwords that are strong. You can help them with this and tell them why their password needs to be strong enough to avoid being hacked. It’s also important to ensure your kids never use your credit card information when using social media. Your account could be in danger of being hacked, but your kids might also unintentionally charge items to your card that haven’t been approved by you.

Set the guidelines or use

Social media is a great way to help your kids begin to make smart decisions, but you must help them do this. This means talking about declining friend requests from people they don’t know and using these platforms intelligently. Make sure your rules aren’t too strict; your kids might try and actively break them regularly. If the rules allow your kids to make good decisions on their own while you’re monitoring their online use and posts, you’ll help them be responsible.

Your kids are going to use social media. It’s important that you limit the amount of time spent on these platforms and how they use them. Will you put some of these suggestions to work in your home?