HOW PARENTS CAN MAKE THE MOST OF KIDS SOCIAL NETWORKING

HOW PARENTS CAN MAKE THE MOST OF KIDS SOCIAL NETWORKING

• Encourage your kid to spend more time – considerably more time – in actual communication than “social networking communication”.
• Tell your kid to spend more time in real-life friendships and activities - Real face-to-face interaction is deeper and warmer than online friendships. Your kid learn more social skills in relating to and having face-to-face communication with his friends. Online friendships does not teach your kid to listen to subtle vocal cues, interpret body language, and adapt to different personalities - skills that are often important to survive in the real world.
• Encourage your child's other passion or interest - Instead of constantly telling your kid to stop going online, discover his other interests and nurture them. Examples of these are sports, playing a musical instrument, writing, crafts, etc. Support him when he is engaged on non-online activities that he is passionate about.
• Suggest to your kid to take advantage of social networking to enhance learning, to collaborate with fellow students, not just for “hanging out” and spewing nonsense.  Teach your kid to differentiate between what has substance, and what is mere trash. You should also warn him not to engage in the darker side of social networking like cyberbullying, stalking, sharing inappropriate materials, etc.
• If possible, supervise your kid’s online activity to protect him from online predators and other dangers - Do not be deceived that your kid is online because of school research and studying. You should be constantly aware of what your kid does online or what he does in front of the computer.
• Emphasize to your kid the difference between real-life and online relationships - Having 500 friends in Facebook, for example, does not necessarily mean that he is popular.
• Emphasize to your kids the difference between writing and spelling for social networking and real world writing.
• As in everything, use social networking in moderation.  It cannot take the place of real-life relationships and other worthwhile pursuits like reading books and sports.
• At an age when your kid can easily fall prey to bad online influences, have the computer screen readily visible to you by putting the computer in a place where you regularly pass by. Do not position it on a hidden corner or angle.