Social media nowadays is not just about connecting with friends and sharing some cool stuff online. It also poses danger that may harm the welfare of children and innocent users. If you want to learn more about the other side of social media – the detrimental side –continue to read on.
How social media poses risks
Social media provides crucial information about its users. Your birthday, location, family background, and even your last checked in place are easily viewable on your social networking profile. If you are not careful about how you share these information, people with malicious intent can not only track you down, but might hurt even your family or friends.
Another danger that social media poses is the risk of being hacked or what is known as identity theft. Another person may use your identity, including all information about you that you have shared publicly, for his own benefit. This could even lead to more serious crimes, such as fraud and financial theft.
Protecting your kids from the dangers of social media
Children and teenagers are the ones who are at highest risk when it comes to being victimized by social media dangers. To avoid this, here are some ways you can do to keep them safe and protected online.
- Know each and every social media account of your children. As much as possible, learn how these social media work and create an account of your own, as well. Connect with or follow your children’s account so you would know what types of information they are sharing to their friends and to strangers.
- Remind them not to share any essential information, such as home address, facts about their family, PIN codes, passwords, and the likes. This information could easily be used by criminals to hack their account or steal their identity.
- Tell them never to disclose any information about family vacations, gatherings, or out-of-town getaways. When a stranger sees your tweet about “having fun at the beach with the family”, they can easily conclude that your house is empty and can be broken in any time.
- Limit their social media time and know which activities they usually do online.
- Instruct them to set their social account settings to private so that only their closest friends and family members can see and know what they are up to. Remind them not to add and interact with strangers, as well.
By guiding your children how to behave and act online, you can keep them safe and protected from social media dangers.