Are you keeping your kids safe on Facebook?

While suspecting that most VAs who read VMoxie are pretty social-media savvy, and probably use SM—including Facebook--to their own, and their clients' business advantages, I wondered how many are savvy when it comes to keeping their own kids safe (and helping their clients keep their kids safe).

I recently had the lovely opportunity to guest host a radio show—Solo Talk--for my friend, Donna Amos, who owns the International Association for Solopreneurs, and where I happen to be a contributing expert.

I interviewed my friend, Kathryn Rose, who recently released the book, Facebook Guide for Parents, and we talked about this very topic. Along the way, I learned some things I didn’t know, and so I thought I’d do a few of things today:

1. Tell you where you can listen to the show, if you would like to. It’s right here if you care to stream it, and here if you want to download it.

2. Tell you where you can buy the book. You can get that here, or from Amazon (both are affiliate links). If you buy the book from Amazon, you get the book, as it is, today. Buy it from Kat’s site, and you get free updates through the end of 2010. With the rate that Facebook changes things, that’s a genuine value!

3. Share some of the take-aways that Kat shared during the show. Here those are:

• One in five kids between the ages of 8 and 12 have accounts; Facebook’s TOS stipulates that the min age is 13. Kat thinks the minimum age for a kid to really be deep into Facebook should be 17.
• The “everyone” privacy setting lets everyone on the Internet see what’s posted (potentially) because Google indexes these. The problem with that is that what they post now can prevent them from getting into good schools, or getting good jobs.
• And notice that even if you have your child’s privacy settings set for Friends Only for just about everything, you need to think about whether you want anyone (literally) to be able to send your child messages (which is the default). If not, you can change that, too. Here’s how: Privacy -> Basic Director Info Settings -> Send Me Messages -> Click drop box, and choose Friends Only.
• Be collaborative with your child as to how Facebook should be used and managed. Don’t be a dictator. If there’s a problem, have your child make the changes—don’t do it yourself. And be very careful what you post to your kid’s profile. And if your kid unfriends you, get over it. Your kid has that right.
• Cyberbullying is a big deal. Kids need to learn Stop-> Block -> Tell so as to effectively make it stop. There are also now cyberbullying laws in place—make sure your kids know not to do it for any reason. It’s not funny or a game. It's something that could ruin the rest of their lives.
• Regardless of your child's age, as long as they're minors, you probably should monitor their online reputations--and an easy way to do that is to set up some Google Alerts.
• It's really a fine line to walk between letting kids learn/grow on their own, and making sure that they're safe on Facebook.

Bit O’Moxie: Self-care begins at home, and there’s probably nothing more precious in your life (or your clients’ lives) than the kids. Be sure to learn what you need to know to keep them safe, and to help them learn how to keep themselves safe on Facebook! Facebook Guide for Parents can help!

Comments

[Laura Jo Richins]

Thanks for sharing these tips. I think we have everything set correctly but I've emailed my girls the tips so they can check them and make sure.

We live in a totally different world these days and being aware of the ramifications of what we do today and how it might affect us tomorrow is so much more important.

Thanks for sharing.