Insight on Social Networking Sites

On Monday, one local school district in my area held a free seminar on social networking sites. At the seminar, parents got the opportunity to receive information about the websites their children are visiting. The goals were to establish a dialogue with parents on the issue, and make children more responsible when using the Internet. Hosts of the seminar stressed the importance of the dangers of certain websites, and how children need to be more responsible when it comes to their online activities.
This seminar on social networking sites gave parents the chance to learn how to search their children’s online profile, how to block other users access to the site, and where to find information on one popular site. One parent said she learned so much that it will open communication between she and her children on social networking. Parents also asked questions about protection against the Internet and Internet bullying (feel free to teach me about the latter).
The school district has now created a social networking forum on its website to discuss social networking; it’s free and monitored by the district. Here are some tips that were given to parents concerning social networking: talk to your children about what websites they are using, develop a family acceptable Internet use policy, and keep a computer in a public area in the home where your children can be monitored.