Making Social Media Safe for Kids

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Presentation Goals

Explain the various privacy settings on the major social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace)

Share tips on teaching your kids about social media and communicating online

Provide resources for further research

*It is much easier to talk to your kids about being safe online, if you are using the tools themselves. We strongly suggest setting up accounts on the sites we discuss.

Facebook Set-up an account on www.facebook.com Minimum age is 13

To open your profile, click on your name. To change your privacy settings, go to the

‘Account’ tab

Home Screen

Click on the ‘Privacy Settings’ link

Privacy Settings

First click on ‘Personal Information and Posts’

Children’s profiles should be set to be viewed by ‘Only Friends’

For older children, you can set-up groups that are blocked from viewing certain information.

For example, pictures are not viewable by contacts labeled as ‘Professional’

To create labels for your child’s friends, click ‘Edit Friends’ under the ‘Account’ Tab

All your child’s friends will appear. Click the drop down menu next to each name to label.

Back under Privacy Settings, you should also check your child’s search restrictions.

Children should be searchable only to friends and should not appear in public search results.

MySpace Set-up an account at www.myspace.com Minimum age is 13 Less privacy settings and minimal control over

profile compared to Facebook

This is an example of a profile page.

To view privacy settings, click on ‘My Account’ tab

Children’s profiles should be restricted to ‘My friends only’

Photos should not be permitted to be shared or emailed

Twitter Set-up account at www.twitter.com No minimum age Everything public and available to search engines

(unless protected profile)

This is what your home page will look like. Click on ‘Settings’ to change privacy settings

Child’s username should not reflect their real name Others should not be able to find by email address Tweet location should not be checked

At the bottom of the screen, you will see a box for protect my tweets.

Checking this box will give you complete control over who sees your information, and tweet stream.

A child’s profile should not have their location or a picture of themselves.

Other Tools Parents should also be aware of the following

social media sites/tools: Chatroulette is a video messaging tool

that assigns you to chat with random people.

There have been several reports of inappropriate behavior and nudity.

Foursquare is a geo-location application that awards points for ‘check-ins’ at businesses, points-of-interest, etc.

A child’s location should not be broadcasted. Predators could pick up on patterns and schedules.

Benefits of social media for kids

Opportunity to practice communication skills at a younger age:– Blogs: Kids express themselves, learn to

form paragraphs and establish a flow in their writing

Connect with out-of-state family and friends

Opportunity to establish themselves and profile projects for colleges/jobs

Teaching your kids about social media

Establish expectations at an early age:– Phones: Overages must be paid by child, restricted

phones for younger kids (only dial home, 9-1-1)– Never give out personal information: address, phone,

email, etc.– Don’t click on links that you don’t know who they’re from– Only watch YouTube when parents are in the room

Limit time on Internet to when parents are home or for certain length (1 hour after dinner, when homework is done)

ResourcesSearch "internet safety" on www.raisingarizonakids.com

Resources (cont.)

 Watch PBS Frontline episode “Growing Up Online”http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

For more information on particular tools:www.facebook.com/safetywww.twitter.com/privacywww.myspace.com/safety

To watch the video of the “Making Social Media Safe for Kids” panel discussion, visit: 

Special Thanks to:

Oden HughesJeff Moriarty Karen BarrTyler HurstCasaundra BrownCalie WaterhouseDevon AdamsThe Unwin Family

MADCAP Theater Social Media Club PhoenixRaising Arizona Kids East Valley TribuneCharlene KingstonSocialReflections.comBanner HealthPV Mom's Club