Social media sites allow people to be connected with friends and family, share photos, and exchange Ideas. Social networking is very useful, but it can be a dangerous place for children if they are not careful. “During the last five years, the number of pre-adolescents and adolescents using such sites has Increased dramatically’ (Pearson). Parents should monitor their child’s social networking sites to keep them safe online. Social network public spaces are unpredictable.
On sites such as Faceable and Twitter, once any information is shared, is no longer private ND the information can never be deleted no matter how secure the privacy settings are. Faceable and Twitter will always have a copy of your postings on their databases. It is so easy to give out information without accountability. For children and teens, the mental capabilities to recognize online dangers, and the ability to make good, safe decisions are not present (Hopkins). In result of ten’s limited capacity for self-regulation and susceptibility to peer pressure, adolescents are at risk as they navigate and experiment with social media (Pearson).
On social outworking sites, kids are destined to be exposed to Inappropriate content. Individuals could send nude pictures to teens and attempt to convince them to send an Inappropriate picture In return. Parents need to monitor their child’s social networking activity so their kid’s will not be presented with this misconduct. Technology has made it easier for bullies to attack their victims and make it virtually impossible for the bullied individual to escape the online bulling. For example, a twelve-year-old girl from Florida committed suicide after reportedly being bullied by woo female students.
Another example is a fourteen-year-old boy from New York committed suicide after being bullied online for over a year (Kalmia). These are only two instances of cyber bullying that resulted in the deaths of very young individuals. Both the bullies and the victims fail to be mature enough to handle these situations. If the bully or the bullied person’s parents were monitoring their children’s networking activities, then these situations could have produced a different outcome. The parents could have assisted with their children’s actions and reactions o the problems at hand.
Children are viewed as an easy target to pedophilia and sexual predators. These experienced online stalkers know that children and teenager make impulsive and unwise decisions (Hopkins). Kids are careless and unaware; they have a harder time recognizing a red flag when things are wrong. These cyber criminals create fake profile accounts on the internet, they lie about their age, use fake pictures, and try to become friends in the hopes of winning the youth’s trust (Hopkins). If these children are not careful with the information that they post, redactors can and will easily find out the young person’s whereabouts.
Parents should make sure that no one was trying to take advantage of their child’s Ignorance and the parents would keep them safe from online stalkers, Some parents and children think that looking over their ten’s networking sites Is an invasion of privacy. These children do not believe they need supervision on the Internet because they think that they are safe and none of these scenarios will happen to them. Children right and what is wrong without parental guidance. It is the parent’s Job to help aka sure their children are on the right track.
If the child knows that their parents are monitoring their online activity, it is not spying, but protection (Kalmia). Juveniles are not aware of how dangerous social networking sites really are, they will believe anything they are told and will not think twice before posting anything online. Teenagers are not able to establish what is or is not appropriate content, they don’t know how to handle gibberellins situations, nor are they are not able to recognize when being targeted by cyber predators. If all parents would take action in their hillside’s online activity, they cyber world would be a safer place.
