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General Safety Issues

TEACHING YOUR CHILD PHONE ETIQUETTE (GUEST POST)

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When I first received this post from Martina Keyhill of BecomeANanny.com, I thought, what does this have to do with safety? Then I read the article, and saw that it has some very good safety advice.   As parents and grandparents, we can set the example for them by using our cell phones in a way that they will understand: please pay attention to the advice Martina shares with us.

Back when landline phones were a fixture in every household, kids were taught proper phone etiquette as a standard skill. Conversely, in 2010,  USA Today reported that one in four American homes had only wireless phones, with that figure steadily climbing. As a result, more of today’s kids are growing up in homes without landline telephones altogether, simply receiving their own mobile devices when they reach an age that their parents determine is appropriate. Teaching your children proper phone etiquette at an early age can help them understand the best ways to politely and appropriately use both the decreasingly popular landline telephone and their own cell phone, when they receive it.

Safety First

Children often have a tendency to give out more information than is strictly necessary over the phone. While these over-shares can range from mildly embarrassing to downright hilarious, that lack of discretion can be dangerous. Kids should be taught from a young age that certain information should never be shared with a stranger, which can help ensure that they never give out information that’s better kept quiet. To guarantee that your youngster understands what is considered appropriate sharing, role play a variety of hypothetical phone conversations and talk about the right way to handle certain questions. If you live in a home with a landline that is still regularly used, these conversations and exercises should start taking place before your child is allowed to answer the phone on his own.

Model Good Phone Behavior

Kids learn much about what is and is not acceptable behavior by observing parents and other trusted adults, then modeling their own behavior after those observations. You can start teaching your child good cell phone etiquette long before he ever gets his own mobile device by simply practicing good phone manners yourself. To provide your kids with a good phone-etiquette role model, don’t take non-essential calls in quiet, public settings or use alert tones that disturb others around you. If you want to raise a child who doesn’t text or talk on his cell phone while driving, it’s vital that you don’t either.

Discuss Appropriate Behavior

When it’s time for your child to get his first cell phone, it’s also a good time for you to discuss your family policy regarding accessing and sharing inappropriate content. If applicable, let your child know that his phone may be subject to random searches or that you’ve installed monitoring software to keep tabs on his phone use, and that he should never send messages or share photos that they would be embarrassed for anyone other than the intended recipient to see. Explaining that content is easily shared, both inadvertently and deliberately, and can never be retrieved may help to prevent him from sending potentially embarrassing content.

Declare “Phone Free” Time During Certain Hours

Banning cell phone use during dinner or landline use after a certain time will help your children learn that it’s not appropriate or polite to send messages or make calls at all hours of the day or night. Enforcing the rule and explaining why your family has such a policy also presents a great opportunity for discussion regarding other times and situations where using a cell phone or placing a traditional landline call might not be acceptable.

Talk About Bullying

Bullying and peer harassment is a very real problem for today’s youth, and it extends far beyond the boundaries of school property. Modern technology allows cruel kids to reach their victims through social networking sites, email and text messages for what often amounts to round-the-clock torment. Talking about cyber-bullying, how to handle it and why it’s wrong before giving your child his first cell phone can also help to open a dialogue about the subject of bullying in general, which can offer you some valuable insights. Explain to your child that even sharing a message with cruel content written by someone else is cyber-bullying, and that it’s never okay to participate in pranks that cause other people pain. It’s also wise to teach him how to deal with any cyber-bullying that he might encounter, so that he’s prepared in the event of this all-too-common occurrence.

In addition to teaching your children the rules governing public cell phone use, inappropriate content, and the basics of cyber-bullying, you should take the time to explain the proper methods for addressing someone after they answer the phone, asking to speak with a member of the household, and answering the phone in a polite, friendly manner.

General Safety Issues

SEVEN BAD HABITS KIDS PICK UP FROM FACEBOOK

Guest Blog by Martina Keyhell

You had to have seen this one coming: kids are picking up bad habits from their extensive use of social media giant Facebook. This can’t come as too big of a surprise though, because it stands to reason that something so popular and fun would be bound to have some ill effects. Not that we’re condemning Facebook, mind you, but there are a few potential pitfalls to watch out for regarding your child’s usage. The following are seven bad habits that kids pick up from Facebook:

  1. TMI – To be honest, many of us are already guilty of grossly over-sharing our personal lives on Facebook. When you have a place to update your status 24/7, though, it shouldn’t come as any real surprise that eventually one’s entire personal life is right there for anyone and everyone to read on their profile.
  2. Inappropriate Friending – It tends to be an automatic reaction for some to “friend” someone after they’ve added you, accompanied by the friend confirmation request, whether this person is someone you know well or not. While they may not like the idea of saying ‘no’, safety should have a higher priority than popularity.
  3. Posting Inappropriate Photos – Inappropriate photographs always seem to find their way onto people’s Facebook pages. For that matter, taking such photos in the first place is ill-advised, to say the least. Coupled with the prospect of being friended by stalkers and strangers, not to mention being available for any potential employers or school officials, this makes for a very dangerous mix.
  4. Poor Time Management – It’s very easy to lose track of one’s time while socializing on Facebook, and hours at a time can be lost without even realizing it, often at the expense of more important things like homework, chores, etc. It may be wise to install a filter software that can monitor use and block certain sites during specified time periods to ensure that your kids don’t spend too much time on the website.
  5. Indiscriminate Downloading – Facebook is notorious for third party apps that seek to gain access to personal data and the friend lists of members who use them. There’s a large risk associated with accepting gifts via some of these apps, unfortunately, that could end up compromising your personal information.
  6. Poor Grammar – As with chat rooms, IM’s, and text messaging, all of which came prior to social media, Facebook posts can tend toward cyber shorthand, whether it’s in the interest of brevity or simply born out of sheer laziness. Although it’s acceptable – even necessary in some cases – to limit character usage, it’s very easy for this habit to leak over to your child’s more formal writing and correspondence.
  7. Not Safeguarding Personal Info – Facebook provides varying levels of privacy settings for its users. Members can share everything with anyone, or limit access to their profile to just friends and/or family. Kids today have become ok and even lax with the safeguarding of their personal information, and identity theft, stalking or harassment can end up being one of the penalties for your child being too open with his or her personal information.

You can read more of Martina’s advice for parents and youngsters Facebook is a very popular social network; it is a good way for old friends to locate long-lost associates.  However, many times young people have been cyberbullied by someone on social networks to the point of hurting themselves or taking their lives.  Teens and parents would be wise to follow this advice from Martina.