When a child doesn't use social media responsibly

NEPatsGirl
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 17:22:53 +0000

I very closely monitored my kid’s electronic use and neither had smart phones until high school. When they did get phones they went on the charger in the kitchen at 9 pm for the night. The family computer was in the living room for all to use prior to high school as well. Once they got laptops we had serious discussions about social media and I had their passwords. Yes, I checked their accounts occasionally but I could tell from their friends’ lists that they were surrounding by good kids and chose to trust their judgment from that point on (around 15).

My son wasn’t much into computers at all or social media, more about gaming. I didn’t allow a lot of the games his friend’s were playing but I’m not stupid enough to think he never played them, it just didn’t happen in my home. The military had a mandatory seminar about social media, the dos and donts and they had pretty tough consquences if they found you were not adhering to their policies.

My D didn’t open a social media account until her senior year in high school and has since closed it as well. Once she got to college she couldn’t stand how everyone was always on their phones and decided she didn’t want to be one of those people. She apparently has a real dislike of tinder? She has recently said she feels like she is left out of social events because she is in the dark without facebook. Not sure what she will do about that.

Now, me…I like my facebook and my message boards and find that I sometimes spend too much time on them, especially in the morning before work when I could be cleaning or doing something more useful. But, before computers, remember those things called “soaps” that our mothers and grandmothers were addicted to LOL ?

As for what would I do if I found out either of my kids was being dishonest about their accounts? Well, let’s assume they are 12-16. I would remove the electronic from the equation for a bit. If I found out they were being inappropriate, I’d remove the electronic for quite some time. I’d be pretty upset if they were posting anything I deemed inappropriate, more hurt then angry I think. Hopefully they were raised better than that.