Over the past year I've watched my daughters and their friends set up
email accounts, Instagram accounts and various chat apps on their newly
acquired smartphones and iPods.
It's clear that they are truly clueless. Emails are always "reply all"
and sent to practically everyone in their address books — not to mention
the crazy chain emails they send.
So, the first discussion I had to have with my daughters was about
email protocol and etiquette — and to reassure them over and over again
that someone they loved would not die if they didn't forward that email
to 10 other people. It's actually not easy to convince a 10-year-old
girl of this fact.
Unfortunately, email was the most benign of our social media issues.
The real problem is apps — specifically Instagram. There's been a ton
of press coverage about the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
and the new focus on apps. However, that focus is all about marketing
and behavioral tracking, not the real hazards of tweens using these apps
— the ones parents are much more concerned about — and the social and
psychological effects of over-sharing or just plain public stupidity.
Most parents I've spoken to don't even know that it's illegal for their
kids to have an Instagram account if they're under 13.
There's been so
much attention paid to Facebook, but from what I'm seeing and hearing,
it's all about Instagram for kids.
Parents who would never let their child have a Facebook account are
completely fine with Instagram, basically because it hasn't gotten the
same amount of publicity.
The same is true for the popular chat apps
like Kik Messenger, which
kids are signing up for in droves. Some know to keep their accounts
private, but many don't. All you have to do is read the reviews in the
app store to see the completely inappropriate, sexual and predator
behaviors going on with Kik.
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