My last post on the Brazos County Realty Blog was about cyber safety with great links to keeping our families safe online. This post is specifically about Facebook safety. Parental involvement in College Station homes is crucial these days. Here’s a link to Facebook Privacy Settings which you can set with your child in their phone or computer.
- Most kids begin using the Internet at Kindergarten age or younger.
- The more time youth spend online, the more likely they are to engage in or experience cyber issues, such as cyber-abuse.
- The majority of cyber offenses involving children or teens are perpetrated by peers of approximately the same age and/or grade level.
- Cyber Bullying and victimization begin as early as second grade and peaks in middle school.
- In high school, cyber offenses include piracy, bullying, and data snooping.2
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- Facebook’s default privacy settings are probably more public than you’d like. Facebook guards the information on minors a little better than the general population, but you’ll still need to review your child’s privacy settings and manually reset the security to “friends only” or tighter.
- Friending your child doesn’t necessarily mean you can see everything they post. Facebook allows users to select which friends they want to be able to see a particular post.
- By default, anyone on Facebook can send your child a friend request. To restrict who can send your child friend requests, edit the privacy settings under the “How You Connect” heading.
- Users can “tag”, or identify, the faces in their photos. Turn on tag review in your child’s privacy settings and Facebook will notify them whenever they’re tagged in a photo before it goes live. Facebook will remove the tag (but not the photo) if they request it. I would also urge parents to get some sort of Parental Intelligence System or Service to receive alerts when your child is tagged in a photo, or uploads on themselves.
- Facebook allows users to put their location on every post. Tell your child not to do this, and change their privacy settings so their friends can’t check them in, either.
- If your child posts something and then has second thoughts, they can hover over the post and click the handy little “X” that appears to delete it.
- If your child lives in the U.S. and has their mobile phone in their Facebook account, all they have to do is text “otp” to 32665 and they will receive a one-time password that is good for 20 minutes. This is the safest way for them to log in to Facebook from a public computer.
- Facebook is home to thousands of third-party apps that your kids can use to play games and do just about anything. Before using any app on Facebook, your child has to agree to the app’s privacy policy that outlines what information it will collect on your child and how it will be used. Tell your child not to click “Allow” without actually reading and understanding the privacy policy.
- Facebook allows your child to remove offensive posts on their Wall, unfriend or block other users, or report posts that violate Facebook policies (including a fake account pretending to be them.) Any types of Facebook bullying is a reportable offense.
- Users can browse and post to each other’s Walls, but they can also talk with friends in real-time using chat or video calling. Make sure they know how to mark themselves as “unavailable” for chat or video calling while doing homework or during other inappropriate times.
Facebook’s policies and default privacy settings are always subject to change, so make sure to keep up on any changes. Visit the Facebook Safety Center, keep up a dialogue with your child, and responsibly monitor their social networking account.
My kids are now grown and out of the nest but I worry more about my grandkids more than ever. All I can say is…. Parents be involved. Be informed…… Protect your children online.
When you need a realtor in College Station or need to sell my home in College Station, give me a call. I’m here when you need me.
Myke Leatham, Broker/Owner
Brazos County Realty
College Station, TX
979-777-4168
‘Let Myke Help You With Your HOMEwork!’