Social Media Parenting: How to Raise Responsible Digital Users

It was 1996, the first time I remember logging on to the internet. For some of you, you may remember the dial tone ringing as the computer tried connecting to the internet. For those of us with dial-up internet, our parents established a time limit because the phone couldn’t be used at the same time. Our kids don’t understand this type of technology, as they haven’t known anything other than WiFi access.

With the ever-changing technology, the topic of digital citizenship is being brought up day after day with our children. This is a topic that my generation was never taught. As a teacher, I’m very passionate when it come to teaching digital citizenship, and it has transferred it my parenting.

Teaching Responsible Digital Citizenship

Teaching our children about making safe, responsible and respectful choices online starts at a very early age around our house. We can never remind our children enough the importance of proper social media use and being positive digital citizens.

Both my husband and I are actively engaged in children’s online use. We try to limit the hours in front of the screen, we follow our high school daughter on all of her social media accounts, and we know our kids’ usernames and passwords for every account.

Quite frankly, I’m sure our high school daughter’s friends are tired of hearing, “Do you need the digital citizenship talk again? Be sure to make positive choices when posting to your social media accounts.”

The children we’re raising are connected 24/7. One post can change how our children are perceived in any given moment. The choices they make today will affect them tomorrow. Think about this—our children are more concerned with what’s happening five minutes from now rather than five or ten years from now. We need to make sure our children know the digital trail they’re creating stays with them forever.

Tips for Raising Positive Digital Citizens

• Do not share important information online, such as social security number, address, phone number or your entire birth date (month, day, year).
• Always THINK before you post! Make sure posts truthful, helpful, inspiring, necessary and kind.
• Everything is “Googleable”. Once something is posted, it’s out there forever.
• Have strong passwords. A strong password consists of letters (both capital and lowercase), numbers and symbols.
• Encourage device-free suppers.
• Take breaks and “unplug” from technology.
• Friend and/or follow your children for each social media he/she is using.

My husband and I didn’t receive the digital citizenship education our children are receiving today. However, we still need to be involved in our children’s digital lives. Continuing to teach our children that everything does not have to be (or should not be) shared online. We also need to continue to encourage both positive online behavior and unplugging from technology.

Above all, the most important thing we can do as parents is model being positive online.