SOCIAL MEDIA AND CHILDREN

Welcome to my eighth entry for my month of blogging prompts that I found over at The Sway blog.

I’m having fun sharing a little bit about myself to you guys and I hope you feel comfortable sharing about yourself in the comments. I love hearing from y’all!!

You can read all my previous blog posts by clicking each link.

My 5 Best Organization Tips

Happy Groundhog Day

5 Valentine’s Day Dates for People on a Budget

My Favorite Valentine’s Day Baked Good

What Family Means to Me

My Top Ten Romantic Movies

When was the Last Time You Said “I Love You”?

Today’s prompt is

“AT WHAT AGE SHOULD CHILDREN BE ALLOWED TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA, AND HOW MUCH PARENT INVOLVEMENT DO THEY NEED?”

What I’m going to share with you is by no means perfect for everyone. I’m just going to share what we have done with our six kids at different stages of their adolescences. I believe we are on the conservative side of social media with our kids.

All of our kids have access to computers in our home. The computers are always in common living areas, not in their bedrooms. We’ve installed parental monitoring software so they don’t go to off-limit websites or use the internet inappropriately. They’ve all told us that they get inappropriate pop-ups so we’ve instructed them not to click on them.

We got each of the kids a cell phone when they absolutely needed it. It was usually either eighth or ninth grade depending on what extracurricular activities they were involved in. We had band camp, piano lessons, ultimate frisbee practice, football practice and so much more. They all have facebook accounts, instagram, and snapchat. I’m friends with them so I can track most of their activity. We’ve also had extensive talks about smart choices in regards to posting, reading, and friending.

I think if we as parents are diligent about talking and tracking our kids’ social media activity when they’re young, hopefully when they leave the house, the lessons will stick with them. We can always hope and pray diligently.

Tomorrow’s prompt is “Tell us about your favorite room in your house.”

Hope you enjoy your Friday!

Love y’all,

Linda