Teenagers spend far too much time on social media
Teenagers spend a lot of time - too much - on social networks - whether they are Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, or Tinder. Learn to recognize, understand, and address the destructive behaviours of today's teens. Here are some useful tips from a top 10 English medium school in Kolkata when it comes to the problems of our teenagers, regarding the virtual reality of social networks.
Fear of most parents
The biggest fear of most parents of students of schools in Kolkata, when it comes to their children's online activities, is still the fear of predators. And this fear is real. If girls put pictures of themselves online, predators are around. Teens need to be smart when it comes to these things. And the good news is that most of the time, teens are smart.
What happens on the Internet stays on the Internet ... and that's part of the problem
Although the Internet can give the feeling of anonymous and permanent security the opposite is true. What teenagers do not often realize is that what is posted on the Internet, remains on the Internet. The online world often means for a teenager, the opportunity to share/talk, about personal things, to an invisible audience. When people talk about the generation gap, they often talk about this differently perceived sense of intimacy. The young generation, because they were raised in this way, is much more comfortable joining this line. They create their kind of reality show about themselves, on their sites/profiles.
Tips for parents from teachers of the best CBSE school in Garia
Start a conversation about safety on the Internet as soon as you allow your children to surf the Internet. You can use block filtering and monitoring for children ages 6-9 to prevent them from reaching a porn site, for example. But once the kids are 12, 13, or 14, they already know more, so you need to have these conversations sooner.
Keep the computer in a central space in the house. (When children are working on something interesting, be sure to comment on it.) Parents need to be able to understand the technology children use and need to set up ground rules, say teachers from most schools in Kolkata. Night time is often the time when dangerous things are planned when teenagers are online. Teachers from a renowned CBSE school in Garia advise parents that none of these things: computers, Android phones, iPhones, should be in their bedroom. If you have a child who engages in risky behaviours, insist on obtaining their passwords, and checking their profile. As a parent, you need to consider the child's personality and then decide how closely you will need to monitor his or her online activity.
One way to have a conversation about online social networking sites: You can ask your teen to help you set up your Facebook profile, for example. Click on the privacy settings together, and make sure your children know how to change the default settings from public to private. If you go to Facebook and find that your teen has set the profile to 'public', this can be a great time to teach them to change the setting. Then you can have a conversation: that the school teachers can find it, future employers can look at his profile, and anyone can see his profile. Make sure you discuss what is appropriate to post, and what is not.
People should not, under any circumstances, post personal information online, such as phone numbers or their addresses, on an online profile. This makes us easy targets for phishers, crooks, and identity thieves. Explain to them that they should never share passwords with anyone: not even with their best friends, lovers, or girlfriends. There have been cases where a relationship has ended badly, and people have tried to take revenge through social networks, posing as the person with whom they had a grudge.
Teach children that the computer keeps track of online data exchanges, and where they come from, on their hard drive, even if the message seems to "disappear." Discuss with your child that he or she should use appropriate language online, as well as in face-to-face communication. They should not say anything offensive or threatening, because emails and instant messages can be downloaded and the child may have real problems.
Teenagers need to know that not all people who are online are really who they say they are. As a top 10 English medium school in Kolkata, we always emphasise that children should immediately always report any inappropriate material or conversations to their parents and social networking site.
Understand that while most Facebook activity is harmless, many teens use online social networking sites as a good place to fill a gap, feel popular, and make friends with other users. If you have found your child's profile online, you should discuss this situation with them immediately about the possible consequences of posting personal information and photos. The idea is to make the child understand that the internet is a 'public domain' and that they do not have the privacy or anonymity that they think they have.