Table Talk: How to Stop Kids from Oversharing on Social Media

How to Stop Kids from Oversharing on Social Media

 

Anneli-Marie R. was a normal 17-year-old walking her dog one evening in the countryside of Eastern Germany.

When Anneli-Marie didn’t return  that night, her father went to look for her. He spotted her dog, but she was nowhere to be found. Then, her parents received a distributing call.

Kidnappers, claiming to have Anneli-Marie, called her parents and requested a ransom of over $1 million in exchange for her safe return.

anneli-marie-r

A Tragic Loss for One Teen’s Family

The parents obliged and promised to do whatever they could to get their daughter back. But the exchange never took place as the kidnappers panicked and cut contact with the parents. They later killed Anneli-Marie and left her body on a farm near her home.

Two men —  Markus B., 39, and Norbert K., 61 — were arrested in the murder that took place in mid-August. The men were familiar with both Anneli-Marie and her father, a local businessman, when they abutted the girl from the street.

One of the men lived near the victim, and police believed that before the kidnapping, the man scouted the location and researched Anneli-Marie on Facebook.

The Scary Truth About Social Media Sharing

It hasn’t been said exactly what information the men found by researching Anneli-Marie on Facebook. But knowing that the girl’s kidnappers studied her Facebook page highlights some of the scary realities of social media profiles.

Through social media, strangers can begin to identify a person by sight and even learn about their habits and activities.

Public social media profiles send out more information than we realize, and that danger is amplified when users overshare through social media.

Related Post Table Talk: Viral Video Shows the Reality of Online Stranger Danger

How to Talk to Your Kids About Oversharing on Social Media

Oversharing on social media is common among kids and teens as they don’t realize the full reach of their posts. As parents, you need to explain to your kids why oversharing is dangerous for them and everyone in the family and arm your kids with best practices that will protect them.

Here are a few of our recommended best practices:

Set Profiles to Private. There are multiple privacy settings on each social media site. Before your child joins any social site, review the privacy options and decide on the safest settings together.

Never Accept Requests from Strangers. When you approve a friend or follower, they often get additional access to your information and updates. Never accept a friend request unless you have met the person in real life and you know them well. Don’t accept someone just because you have many mutual friends online.

Don’t Overshare Personal Information. Certain information should never be shared on social media including photos that might indicate information such as:

  • address
  • phone number
  • school name
  • social security number
  • passwords

Don’t Share Your Life in Real Time. While it is common for teens to share their life on social media as it is happening, it is better to share after an event or experience. If your family is going on vacation, tell your teen not to mention it on social media as it can signal to followers that nobody is home at your house. It is also unsafe to share your location as it makes it easy for stalkers to know where you are at the exact time.

As you teach your children best practices for managing their social media accounts, it is a good idea to follow up and ensure they are doing what you taught them.

You can use the MamaBear app, Peace of Mind Parenting™ app to easily monitor your child’s social media sites all in one place. The free app, available for iPhones and Androids, connects your account with your child’s so you can keep an eye on their activity in real time, further protecting them in the often scary world of social media.

 

Parents Are Oversharing on Social Media and It May Be Impacting Their Kids

Parents Oversharing Social Media

Parents spend a lot of time worrying about their children oversharing on social media.

But for many parents, oversharing wasn’t something they were thinking about when they were posting baby pictures, videos of toddlers, and funny stories about their child’s embarrassing “firsts.”

When it comes to social media, are parents as guilty as their teenagers when it comes to oversharing?

How Many Parents Are Sharing?

Both mothers and fathers say they use social media and many admit to sharing photos, videos, and/or anecdotes about their children on social media. According to a national survey conducted by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s hospital:

  • 84% of moms use social media
  • 56% of moms use social media to discuss parenting
  • 70% of dads use social media
  • 34% of dads use social media to discuss parenting

Why and What Are Parents Sharing?

Parents reported that sharing parenting stories made them feel less alone and over 50% said that sharing helped them worry less.

They also said that “sharenting” was a useful way to get feedback about parenting. The survey found that nearly 70% of parents use social media to get advice. Parents most frequently discussed:

  • getting kids to sleep (28%)
  • nutrition and eating tips (26%)
  • discipline (19%)
  • daycare/preschool (17%)
  • behavior problems (13%)

Sarah Clark, M.P.H., associate director of the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health and associate research scientist in the U-M Department of Pediatrics, talked about the positives and negatives of sharing about parenting, “On one hand, social media offers today’s parents an outlet they find incredibly useful.  On the other hand, some are concerned that oversharing may pose safety and privacy risks for their children.”

How Parent Sharing Impacts the Kids?

While many parents use social media to discuss parenting, they are still concerned about what that might mean for their kids and feel that other parents are sharing too much.

Three-quarters of parents said they see other parents sharing information or photos that are embarrassing or inappropriate and information that identifies a child’s location.

Others are worried about what their own sharing will mean for their children:

  • 68% worry about their child’s privacy
  • 67% worry someone else will reshare their child’s photos
  • 52% worry the child will later be embarrassed by the information

These concerns are valid. Oversharing on social media has created some problems for parents.  

Parents have experienced “digital kidnapping,” where an individual steals photos of children and reshares them as if the children were their own.

Photos of children taken as babies or toddlers have become the basis of cruel jokes and cyberbullying, such as the Facebook group about “ugly babies.”

Related: Do You Know Enough About Cyberbullying to Protect Your Child?

How Parents Can Keep Privacy as a Priority

Parents are responsible for managing their children’s privacy from birth through their teenage years. They are also responsible for setting a good example and giving their children the tools to manage their own privacy when they become adults.

So, before you hit the share button, consider how the photo or information could affect your child if spread throughout the internet. Then, when children are old enough to have  their own social media accounts, use MamaBear, The Ultimate Parenting App™, available for iPhone and Android devices, to monitor what they post and what is posted about them, and to  teach them how to safely manage their accounts on their own.

 

New Features for a New School Year

We hope you’re having a wonderful summer, full of fun, quality family time and even a few moments to relax. At MamaBear we’ve worked hard all summer to get you ready for back-to-school with a ton of new features to protect and connect your family and give you the peace of mind parents deserve.  Start this school year giving your kids the freedom they want and use MamaBear to ease your worry with responsible parental supervision. We’ve added the new features you’ve asked for, and still deliver it all in your convenient Family Newsfeed right on your mobile phone.

Here’s What’s New

Text Message Monitoring

If your child is using an Android device you can now see all of their incoming and outgoing text messages. Mom and Dad can use any phone, iPhone or Android. This has been our top feature request and it’s free! Simply go to your child’s profile settings and tap “text alerts.” Then tap “Turn On” in the top right hand corner.

YouTube Video Monitoring

Now you can see what your child has been viewing on YouTube, the world’s most used video and music site among teenagers. See their viewing history right from your Family Newsfeed anytime.

More Social

We’ve added the popular site Tumblr to the list of social monitoring. Go to your child’s MamaBear Settings profile and set up this along with Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Related: Is Tumblr Safe: What Every Parent Needs to Know

Child’s Panic Button

We’ve added a quick one-touch feature in the child app for a fast way for your child to get in touch if they need you immediately. It alerts all the guardians instantly if needed.

Do0dle Check-ins

Check-ins are more fun now with Do0dles to the family.

Apple Watch Integration

If you’re an early tech adopter, you’ll love getting your MamaBear notifications right to your Apple Watch. Kids can quickly check-in from the watch, too.

Bear2Bear Referral

Share the gift of family safety and earn free premium subscription when you share MamaBear with your friends. Your friends will receive a free two-month premium upgrade and so will you, every time you share the app with someone new. Learn how to start sharing.

Related: How To Use Bear2Bear – MamaBear’s Customer Referral Program

One-Touch Resend Login Link

Easily remind your child to log in to MamaBear. Resend them a one-tap log-in link by going to their profile settings in your app.

And there’s lots more in the way of performance improvements, location enhancements and customization options!

Back to School

How to Receive Automatic Alerts with MamaBear When Kids Arrive/Leave School | MamaBear

A new school year means extended independence, new friends and different places to go, so be sure to use the original MamaBear features and set up Safe Places for arrival and departure notifications, make sure a Driving Speed is set for your teen, and that you’re connected to your child’s social media including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and now Tumblr and videos with YouTube.

Related: Receive Automatic Alerts with When Kids Arrive/Leave School

Keep your kids engaged with MamaBear by sending them messages. The more they open and use the app, the more often you’ll receive accurate location updates. Share your location with them and break down barriers for staying in touch. And don’t forget you can receive your child’s team sports events and messages right in MamaBear through your TeamSnap account without having to open another app.

Explore the new features and get back to MamaBear by re-installing or updating the MamaBear App to the latest version, 4.9 and start enjoying a whole new way to parent in the digital age.

Our support team is on standby if you need help logging back into your account. We hope to hear from you.

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Table Talk: Viral Video Shows The Reality of Online Stranger Danger

Coby Persin, a YouTube star with over 1.3 million subscribers, recently used his platform to remind both parents and children just how dangerous social media can be.

In the video, “The Dangers of Social Media (Child Predator Social Experiment),” Coby made a fake Facebook profile of a 15-year-old boy and friend requested three girls (12, 13, and 14 years old) with their parent’s permission.

He then messaged the girls, and after a few days, invited each one to meet him in real life.

The parents in the experiment believed their daughters wouldn’t agree to meet the fake 15-year-old Coby had created, but what they found surprised them. 

Each of the girls agreed to meet him in person. One at a park. One invited him to her house after her parents went to sleep. And one girl even snuck out of her house and jumped right into his car.

The parents were shocked and so were the girls. 

They didn’t see the boy they thought they met online. Instead, their parents were there waiting for them with Coby to remind them of the incredibly dangerous decision they just made.

Watch for yourself.

Then, share this powerful video with your kids to make sure they realize just how dangerous meeting online strangers can be.

After hearing about a news story out of Los Angeles, Coby released this video to show how easy it is for a pedophile to pick up an underage child using social media.

In that news story, a father awoke at 2 AM and saw that his teenage daughter had left the house. When he went to look for her, he saw a man guiding his daughter into a car.

This wasn’t an experiment. The man pretending to be a teenager was actually 27. And the danger was real.

How to Talk to Your Kids About Online Stranger Danger

As your kids get ready to go back to school, take this opportunity to remind your them how to protect themselves from online stranger danger.

  • Keep your profiles set as private.
  • Remember that people can easily pose as someone else online.
  • Online profile photos cannot prove someone’s identity.
  • If someone sends you inappropriate photos, tell an adult immediately.
  • Never give out personal information such as your address, phone number, or school name.
  • Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know — even if you have mutual friends.
  • If someone asks you to meet them in real life, tell an adult immediately.
  • NEVER meet a person you met online in real life.

Related Post: Dangers of Talking to Strangers Online

Many parents think their children would not agree to meet an online stranger in real life. But as the parents in this video found out, parents might be surprised by what they learn about their children’s social media habits.

The only way to be absolutely sure that your child is practicing safe social media habits is to see it for yourself. Parents need to be involved with their child’s online social world. With MamaBear, the Peace of Mind Parenting™ app, that is easy. 

The free app alerts parents when their child gets a new follower and posts a new message or photo. Parents can also set up notifications so they get special alerts when their child gets a private message or uses certain words or phrases (such as “meet in person”, etc.).

Available for both iPhones and Androids, this app is a must-have for parents looking to protect their children from the very real dangers of online strangers.