By: Charley CrowsonCLARKSVILLE, Md. - It’s the weekend, and Kendall Goldstein is helping her mom, Abby, prepare family dinner. Unlike some of her friends, she’s not at her computer chatting online or checking out the latest Facebook status.
She can’t right now because a bad report card has her side-lined from social media.
“Facebook is a privilege,” Abby Goldstein said. “If she’s got good grades, she can go on for half an hour each day. If they’re not good, then she’s off until they get better. Then she’ll have that privilege again.”
You might think Abby’s and her husband’s rules are strict for Kendell. “I use it to talk to my friends,” Kendall Goldstein said. “It’s pretty much the only way I talk to people.”
But mom says they’re necessary, teaching her daughter priorities and discipline.
“Her grades are the most important thing,” Abby said. “We want her to get into the best college she can.”
And the Goldstein’s monitor what Kendall does online because, as they see it, what she does today could have far reaching effects in the future.
“Who’s to say that someone can’t go back in the past and find something written or pictures taken and use them against her when she gets older,” Abby said.
Dr. Phillippe Duverger with Towson University says many parents share the Goldstein’s concerns, but they shouldn’t fear social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“You have 750 million people interacting on FB interacting,” he said. “It’s not bad to have a Facebook page. It’s not bad to listen to rock and roll music. It’s not bad to do anything, as long as you do it in moderation.”
And toward teaching moderation, Dr. Duverger says parents may first need to step outside of their own comfort zone and educate themselves.
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“First things parents need to do is have a Facebook account,” he said. “They need a Twitter account. They need a professional Linkedin account. They should see the value in knowing about it to teach their kids.”
From there, Dr. Duverger says keeping that social media page clean can help prevent headaches in the future. However, the tips don’t simply apply to teens. They’re things we should all do.
www.networkworld.com provides a list of “must do’s” for social media users.
Click to the ne xt page to find out what they are.
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