Parents need to understand how popular social networks are for their children. Most children use only a few sites that have their pros and cons in terms of parental control.
Parents should clearly understand that the impact of social networks on the minds of their
children in 2017 continues to increase. Today, teenagers and children more than ever seek
ways to communicate online and share their life’s experiences somewhere. It so happened
that this is an important part of self-actualization and socialization of the growing
personality today.
Researches show that most popular audience growth comes from younger age groups.
Other ones show things much more burning for parents. Teenagers spend up to 9 hours a
day on social networks, and children between the ages of 8 and 12 are there about 6
hours a day. We will not ask you whether to limit this or not, but we do not recommend
completely abandoning the situation at first.
You must at least understand where your children spend so much time, and what they do
there. Only after that you have to decide whether to resort to spyware for iphone or Android devices to track the actions of children in social networks.
So, let’s consider the 5 most popular and fast growing among teens and kids social
networks to date.
When asked which social network is the most popular among teenagers today, statistical
studies give an unambiguous answer: Instagram. This is an application and social
network, which allows the exchange photo and video content. Today the application is
known so well that it is probably used even by babies and grandfathers with
grandmothers.
Why is Instagram friendly for both children and the rest, even the most unsuitable age
groups?
Measurably important roles in this play a convenient and reasonable design ease of
sharing media files and messages. Here you can also boast of your photographer’s talents,
and show your beloved domestic cats in photoshoots for 1000 shots. The clarity of the
concept “for all” puts Instagram on the place where it is now.
What is the plus for the parents? If you correctly configure content access at your kid’s
profile, outsiders cannot use it. What is the main disadvantage? A teenager can easily add
to these strangers. It is important to do regular checks.
The site is known for the ability to expose statuses quickly. Probably, for 5-10 seconds
your child is able to post a fresh selfie, check in at the favorite café and write a joke.
This is probably the most popular way to communicate with fans among the stars.
Children do not have such popularity, but they like to use applications to interact with
peers.
What is the positive site of Twitter for you? Twitter makes it easy to communicate with
friends and stay in the center of incoming information.
What are the disadvantages? The format of the social network can aggravate the
inferiority complex of less active and popular children. This often happens against the
backdrop of “success” and the constant updating of feeds of their more popular peers. It
is also easy to insult and press publicly here.
Although Facebook has been losing its young audience in the last 2 years, it still remains
the largest social network in the world, where teenagers are active. It’s easy to
correspond, share photos and videos, and look for old and new friends.
For parents, a well-thought- out system of security measures to protect the child from
outsiders becomes a plus. And to follow a child, it is often enough to simply visit his page
or be his friend. That is, it’s a safe space in general, but do not forget about cyberbullying.
Tumblr
Unlike the previous three items, not the most obvious for the parents stuff from this list.
Tumblr combines the capabilities of a traditional personal blog and the concept of Twitter.
The project was founded back in 2007 as a multimedia everyday blog for children and
adults. In a global sense, for children it is a way to stay up-to- date with the trends of
modern culture: through cinema, television, music, books.
Today, there are 550 million users a month, and this automatically means that parents
must check it. This is a convenient conceptual space where a child can express his creative
world and develop talents, as well as easily find other creative peers of interest.
But there are fatty cons. For example, it’s easy to find explicit adult content and there are
no filters for protection. Privacy policy is weak and the child can carry out untracked
actions. Also great weight on the site is played here for a long time destructive discourse,
from which it is not always possible to protect the child. Because of the dangerous
established themes for communicating in Google, the site is marked as 17+.
Snapchat
This is almost a full Instagram analog for communicating through posting photos and
videos. The main difference is the self-deleting posts with time. Also, Snapchat is popular
due to its bright filters, allowing fun to transform the appearance of photos and videos.
Teenagers love this application very much (its base is growing most rapidly in 2017 and
the average time of human presence for the day here is also the fastest growing), as you
can post awkward content that will be removed and they will not have to be ashamed of it
later.
The advantages of the resource are that it is easy for children to communicate here, and
the account has a quite good confidentiality system. If necessary, you can find many
applications to monitor your child’s Snapchat account
Main minus is in “piquant” chatting concept which pushes children to something bigger
and not always correct. Like, “everything will leave soon and no one will know.” But
remember, nothing on the Internet disappears without a trace. And even through the geo
location of the child’s app, it’s easy to spot outsiders with dubious intentions. Be careful.
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