Most kids today are obsessed with social networking, and this has become easier with smartphones. They have made social networking accessible for children, who no longer need to be on a computer. Most parents are likely to say yes to this some with sad faces. Whenever a teenage girl or boy commits suicide, parents are the first ones to be blamed for their carelessness and negligence in allowing them to be online all the time! With the increasing incidents of cyber abuse, cyber bullying, and sexual harassment online, it is obvious that something definitely is not the way it should be with our kids’ online lifestyles. We should be aware of the three most common and unsafe teen social networking habits that have reached obsessions proportions, and how you can control these remotely without letting the kids know about it.
1. Teens Selfie Obsession
Any trend becomes popular when showbiz celebs do it in public. As an example of this is the ‘Oscar Selfie’, that is considered to be the most retweeted selfie ever. However, this trend is now turning into an obsession especially in today’s teen generation. Selfie Obsession – children are sharing inappropriate and private selfies with a view to get appreciation on the social networking forums, without realizing that such pictures make them vulnerable to cyber bullying, harassment, and sexual advances.
2. The Over-sharing Dilemma
Staying logged in, regular status updates about relationship status, personal photos and videos, location updates, workplace and general gossiping, discussing personal problems on open pages and putting personal details on social networking sites always put you in danger. Teens are more vulnerable to this over-sharing dilemma because they often put every minute activity of theirs on public forums, which is used against them sometimes by people they thought were friends. Of more than 700 teens surveyed in 2013 about their online sharing activities, 42% admitted that they are vulnerable to identity theft as they put a lot of personal information on public forums constantly.
3. Online Stalking and Bullying
Recently the case of a teenage girl who committed suicide after she was abused by two teenage girls brought this issue to the front. The abuse did not involve online bullying but she was also attacked physically five times. Additionally, sometimes long hours of chatting on different chat forums and social networking sites make teens vulnerable to cyber abuse, as not everyone chatting may be who they say they are.
How to Save Kids?
It is a sad fact that most cyber bullying cases are not reported by children, and parents are often not aware of their kids’ online activities. This makes monitoring kids online activities essential to save the kids from harmful effects of social networking. Today parents can monitor their children’s online activities remotely through various cell phone spy softwares.
How does Cell Phone Spy work?
TheOneSpy’s cell phone spy software comes with a large array of powerful monitoring features, allowing parents to easily view their online actions including call logs, SMS logs, web browsing, location tracking, instant messaging, emails, locking their phones, picture galleries, contacts, and appointment schedule whenever they want. It is best to start monitoring cell phones of your kids to ensure their safety before any other child becomes a victim of cyber related crimes.
