I would like to welcome Tammy Hudgin as our guest blogger. Tammy is a social media specialist. I promise she really knows her stuff.
Welcome to the world of Social Media where us parents are scared for our children!! The world of privacy gone out the window, right?
So, yes, the reality is that we will never be safe BUT you can take some measures to ensure that you are protected as much as you can be.
The first step is underst anding the different Social Media sites and how they are set up. Each site will have privacy settings that you need to make sure you go through and be okay with them or change them to have more protection. For example, when it comes to Facebook, we have a whole section just focused around privacy settings. Please note: it is best to do these steps from a computer, not a Phone or tablet. When you are on your “home” tab, click the drop down arrow at the top of Facebook, then “settings”. In here, you will find many different tabs that you need to walk through and check all the privacy settings and make sure you are comfortable with them.
Once you go through these steps, you will also want to go to your personal profile/timeline and go through the “about” section and the “photo” section, to make sure you have your privacy set up properly.
You also need to be made aware of the fact that there are other elements on Facebook that are set to “public” and if you are commenting on them or even “liking” them, you are opening yourself up to everyone (the public) seeing it. For example, Facebook Business Pages are public environments, some of your friends could be posting statuses/updates that they have set to public. So always, take a second to look and see what the privacy setting is on that post before doing the interaction.
Now, most of our kids don’t realize that even though they think they are protected, they are not. When using a site like “SnapChat”, it is set to delete the posts automatically after a certain time frame BUT the reality is that anyone can take a screenshot of the post/picture before it gets deleted, so there goes the idea of protection. This applies to anything we post on the Internet, every Social Media site, screenshots can be taken of the posts and then surface later or used in creating fake accounts.
The other area that we need to be aware of is when we are using our phones for Social Media. There may be certain settings set up that are intruding in on your privacy. It will depend on the type of phone you use, but I highly recommend that you go through the settings of all the Apps you are using on your phone, and your actual phone settings to double check (for example: tracking of your location may be turned on).
Another key element that we need to watch for is the Third Party Apps that we use. Each one of these Apps has privacy settings that are defaulted and in most cases, not in your favour. Again, you want to make sure you go into the settings of each App and check what privacy settings are there and change them so that you are not releasing personal information to them, or giving them access to it.
As a side note: if you are using/playing any games in Facebook, you need to go into each Game and get rid of the privacy elements that you are releasing to them. You will find this also under the “settings” section that we talked about earlier, under the “Apps” tab. Once you go into this section, you will want to hover your mouse to the right of each App and click the “pencil” icon that will pop up. Then within the next step, please go through and read each element and determine if you want that information made available to that App.
As we move forward with Social Media, and it is only going to get bigger, we have to protect ourselves as much as possible and be made aware of the fact that we will never be 100% protected, that is the reality. The important step is to talk to our children about the safety elements that are applicable to each site and what to watch for. For example, don’t just accept a friend request from anybody, especially if you do not know who they are, whether cute or beautiful. There are many fake accounts out there and we need to caution our children to think twice, even three times, before accepting the request. If a decision is made to accept the friend request and messages start happening that are very flattering or even of sexual content, our children need to know to report and block these people or tell you so you can take the necessary measures. Teach your children, and ourselves, how to “creep” someone’s profile (click on their name and go to their profile and go through it, check the “about” section, check the “photo” section, check their wall) and if you feel uncomfortable, do not accept the request.
The BEST news that I can share with you is that in all of these Social Media sites you can change your privacy settings. When creating accounts, this should be the first step you do before you start posting or adding elements to your profiles.
As parents, I believe it is important for us to underst and each Social Media site that our children want to use and work with them to get them set up. If we leave it to our children, most of them will just create an account without looking any further as they are excited about getting started.
If you have any specifics questions, please reach out to me and I will do my best to answer or find the answer for you. Here is to keeping us and our children, as safe as possible.
To learn more you can reach out to Tammy Hudgin
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.tammyhudgin.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tammyhudgincreating
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