Next Wednesday Wrap! Helping your teen use social media safely!

[Ngaio-RO]

@LaurenPiro Can I start with some questions that I've heard from other parents and wondered some times as a parent myself?

First - of all the social media platforms is there a worst and a best? Or are they different in different ways?

Basically, should I allow my teenagers on one or some but not all of them?

[Beingme2017]

Hi Lauren thanks for being here tonight

[Zoesplace]

Hi @LaurenPiro I use to have an issue with my daughter taking off without telling me or lying about her location, so she could be somewhere else.  At the time I had real safety concerns for her, so it was important for me to know where she was. Do you have any suggestions about tracking teens phone locations in a way that they are not aware, and what are the legalities around this?    

[Chalke5]

Is there any research indicating addiction and computer use?

[taokat]

Hey @LaurenPiro, thanks for sharing your wisdom with us tonight.

[Ngaio-RO]

Hey @Zoesplace I'll let @LaurenPiro answer that one. Great question.

And @Chalke5 There's some interesting arguments around social media use and whether it can actually be an addiction.

There's some defining factors of addiction that doesn't fit, like tolerance building etc. but they definitely know that the brain is firing in the same areas that it does during sex and eating when scrolling through Facebook etc. It's to do with the self-disclosure component. It makes us feel good.

Any theories on why?

[LaurenPiro]

Good question @Ngaio-RO. All social media platforms will serve slightly different purposes, although some now contain pretty similar features!  If you're looking at it from a safety perspective, there will be a degree of risk involved in any platform or app that allows private contact, particularly a chat feature. However, there are settings that can be used to mitigate that risk. The majority of social media sites do have a minimum age requirement of 13.

[Ngaio-RO]

Awesome. You're getting a bit of a backlog so I'll leave you for a moment to answer the other questions.

@taokat @Chalke5 @Zoesplace . @Beingme2017 what social media do your teenagers use and do you guys follow them?

Which ones do you like and which ones do you not like?

[Beingme2017]

Miss 16 uses facebook, instagram, snapchat and prob other things. I know she was on something I didn't like to do with connecting people but shes off that now. I am friends with her on facebook and instagram but I don't have snapchat.

Master 13 uses instagram, snapchat and he is a big gamer on Roblox and there are chat groups and stuff that he is on there a lot. I am friends on instagram with him.

[taokat]

My daughter uses tumblr, snapchat, instagram. She has a facebook account but doesn't often use it anymore. 

We're only connected on facebook.