Part Two of Social Media and the Parent/Child Relationship

 

As mentioned in Part One of our series on Social Media and the Parent/Child Relationship, it is suggested that parents set up age appropriate ground rules for use of social media and enforce the consequences for any rule violations.  For guidelines on such ground rules we are once again looking to our social media hostess, Joanna Jullien of Banana Moments.  Ms. Jullien produces the Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner column for Examiner.com. (For Ms. Jullien’s background information please see http://bananamoments.com/about-banana-moments/ )

Ms. Jullien points out that it is important for the parents to recognize they are the primary teacher for their child (ren), as such, they have the authority and responsibility to guide them.  Furthermore, she states, “mobile connectivity brings the world in closer and exposes youth to adult issues at earlier ages”. Both the parent and the child need to recognize the cyber world is a very PUBLIC space, thus instruction needs to take place between the parent and child on what should remain PRIVATE in this public space.  Additionally, the child should not have access to everything which is available on the internet; some of it can actually be very dangerous for the child.  Access to social media should be presented to the child as a privilege not a right, therefore, the need for rules and guidelines within a family (and/or between biological parents and the child (ren) if there is a separation/divorce in place). 

If you’re like the rest of us, you find yourself darting from one activity to another in a sort of whirlwind, so we thought you might appreciate the video link, with text summary, of Ms. Jullien’s Cyber Rites of Passage: How to set age-appropriate boundaries for children using smart devices, as a helpful quick reference (hint it is less than 7 minutes long).  

http://bananamoments.com/bmblog/cyber-rites-of-passage-for-children-of-all-ages/

 

However, if you have the time and are seeking more details on the subject then check out Ms. Jullien’s eBook at the following link:http://bananamoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2014_October_Cyber-Rites-of-Passage.pdf

We would like to thank Ms. Jullien and her Banana Moments Foundation for generously providing our readers with these resources.  Please stay tune for further posts regarding our Social Media and the Parent/Child Relationship mini-series.