Social media has changed the whole way of human communication, and kids are the most affected. From a very early age, kids are logging on to social media sites and sometimes alarmingly, without any adult supervision. But it just not the usual dangers of lack of physical activity or eyesight or back problems but something far more sinister and problematic. Today, we aim to take you through the lengths social media can directly or indirectly take your kids on a dark path without them even realizing it. The aim with this is not to scare you but to help you realize the enormities of these dangers. With the positivity of much of social media posts, it becomes easy to ignore the dark side of society. But those threats didn't disappear, and they just took a new form. How social media became scary?Bad decision making, which is a trait of drug users and pathological gamblers, is now also seen in excessive users of social media, according to a recent study by Michigan State University. This has made the act to track kids web browser activities a must-have for parents. In addition, the statistics related to the excessive use of such sites is scary enough. A 2011 survey by National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University surveyed 2,000 adolescents; 70 % said they used social media daily. The results were
1. The pressure of perfection Many teenagers have reportedly stated in interviews and surveys, how social media convinces you that everyone else out there is having a better time than you. Using a social media tracker can be a practical tool to cap your kid's time on social media. 2. Peer Pressure Many parents may not realize, but 75% of teens from 12 to 17 admit that seeing their friends consume alcohol or drugs motivates them to mimic their behavior. There are positive and negative sides to excessive social media use, but the negatives are definitely dominating. 3. Poor mental health Multiple research studies have shown an undeniable link between excessive usage of social media sites and negative mental health and low self-esteem. Kids don’t have the emotional maturity and hence turn to quick fixes like drugs or alcohol, often fueled by these sites. 4. Advertising Alcohol companies are also some of the most prolific advertisers on social media sites. These companies have like Pernod Ricard, increased its digital marketing budget by 50% in the last several years. Such excessive ads normalize drinking for teens. Tips and Trick to avoid addiction to social media Social media and its negative effects on young kids, and teenagers are a cause for worry. The content and ads are showing shocking results. As such, it becomes essential to monitor your children secretly to keep them safe from these evolving threats. The following tips and tricks to handle the threats could help you to help you avoid many problems:- 1. Coping skills It is a practical step to prepare your kids for situations where they can not use their mobiles. They should not develop habits where they develop withdrawn symptoms if taken off their mobiles. Teach them to have plenty of options for entertainment and work. 2. Frequent rests Remind them to take frequent tests from looking at social media sites and mobile screens. Whether they are using it for entertainment or school assignment, a break from mobile users will be highly beneficial in breaking their addiction. 3. Healthy atmosphere Ensure that there is a creation of a healthy atmosphere at home of open discussions and conversations between you and your kids. If they don't feel comfortable sharing with you their thoughts and feelings, then problems might arise. 4. Use of Spy app A monitoring solution or a spy app is also another practical application nowadays. It's a software solution available for many parents. There are a number of known spy apps like Spymaster Pro, Spyzie, mSpy, etc. for you to try. ConclusionScreen addiction and resulting consequences are making parents scared. Because of this, parents are forced to track kids web browser activities to monitor their online activities. As shown above, because of excessive social media use, kids are getting addicted to not just mobiles, but drugs, alcohol, and other dangerous activities. Also Read:- How to track a iPhone secretly?
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The Internet and the kids Kids are getting access to mobiles and the Internet at an alarmingly young age. Experts agree that a child cell phone monitoring software from the beginning is a good idea. Kids, after all, can’t be left to judge everything on their own. Being a kid and teenager is an age of wonder, curiosity, and excitement. You want to do everything right now, and things seem permanent. There is a lot to learn, and hence, supervision is of the utmost importance. That supervision becomes even more central to a child’s overall safety when it comes to them being active on social media. As FBI and many other experts warn of sexual predators trying to target kids and teenagers, many of whom who are unregistered, running lose on social media. Kids sometimes secretly use social media daily, without the parents knowing much about it. You can use a cell phone spy software or Facebook messenger kids to monitor their daily use. On their own they can engage in risky behavior with dangerous consequences. Social media sites allow many advantages. Kids can meet people from around the world and learn personally about their culture and lifestyle. They become more aware, but some people want to take advantage of kids by manipulating them for their gains. Ways to control your kid’s social media addiction Social media is a pretty addictive medium of entertainment. With its endless scrolling down, kids are especially vulnerable to this crucial aspect of these platforms. It has now been firmly established with the proof lying in various studies and surveys. A study by CASA Columbia found 70% of teenagers between the age of 12 to 17, admitting that they spend time on social media every day. Plus, 88% of teenagers saw someone be mean to another person on social media. To monitor your children secretly keeping these statistics in mind is hardly a surprise. People with ill intentions can easily manipulate kids. So, it would be wise to go through a few ways to control your social media addiction as a precaution:- 1. Show love and care As cliche as it sounds, expressing love and concern for each other on a daily basis helps. If instead of communicating, you make them sit in front of a screen so that they are quiet, then the addiction should not come as a surprise. Care and nurture are what forms a human being, and if you don’t give them complete attention during growing up, it will show. How you treat them during these years is how they form habits during the future years. 2. Create fixed boundaries Teaching kids about boundaries very early on is a great lesson. In the context of being on social media, it is even more vital to learn that. You can spy on children’s Whatsapp messages or other such sites to know if they abide by these boundaries. Don’t get angry if they break the rules and lead by example. An hour every day on social media every day and little relaxed limits on weekends is a reasonable restriction. These controls should not feel harsh, or they may not comply. 3. Be tech-savvy To keep your social media under checks it helps to know about technology. Know the basics of online surfing and the way social media and mobile works. You could take a few steps daily to help control their addictions. For example, checking browser history, learn the different parental controls, and installing a few filters so they may not be exposed to unsuitable content. Having an app to track internet history of your kids regularly can be a practical step in the right direction. 4. Teach priorities Discussing the priorities of life from the very start can be very positive. They will know the difference between priority and leisure or frivolous. They will understand the importance of dealing with the priorities first. Teach them responsibility by ensuring they do their daily chores. They will learn through such regular discussions and observations on how vital it is to take care of priorities before entertainment. Learn them to treat like a privilege and not a right. 5. Use monitoring software It is useful to follow the above-mentioned steps. Though, it is always advisable to have a backup plan just in case these steps don’t work. Experts suggest the use of child cell phone monitoring software to keep a close eye on all they do. It will remotely and secretly give you daily updates on their social media and other mobile activity. You can also do it with the knowledge of your kids, as some specialists suggest. This way, they will behave well as most people do under observation. The ways spy apps act as a parental control There are various spy apps to choose from in the market. You can choose the one that suits your needs and is within your budget. There are some well-proven ways through which these spy apps help parents to keep their kids safe on social media:-
Being on social media platforms gives you multiple options to explore. You can find many avenues of entertainment, and you can also gain knowledge, and build an online career too. Then there is the dark side of these sites. Internet is an open field where everyone can enter and easily exit. These people with predatory intentions prey on the innocent on social media. Having a monitoring app to spy on children’s Facebook messenger or any such site can act as a deterrent. Lastly, let’s take a brief look at some of these threats:-
Kids having a mobile and being on social media is almost inevitable in this day and age. Instead of fighting it, the smart move would be to regulate the social media usage of kids. With the help of various spy apps, you can monitor your children secretly to keep them safe and sound. A combination of safety precautions, some of which are mentioned above, and a spy app is an excellent plan to control your kid’s social media addiction. Why is Social media scary for Parents?Do you worry your kids being too engrossed online? Is their social media use scaring you lately? The online world is a big and vast space of internet space that has almost no boundaries. This is scary for all the parents and especially first-time parents. There might be a bunch of ads telling you to use a cell phone spy on your kid’s activities when he uses these social media apps, but it is important to be aware of the topic. Complete awareness becomes a must for a responsible parent. The total realization of the subject at hands, the scope, positives and especially the negatives. Why the negatives? Because you should know what you are trying to avoid. Dangers of Social Media The internet and especially the alluring landscape of social media websites can be highly distracting for the young warped mind of a teenager. Let’s go through the crucial dangers social media holds for kid’s and their loved ones listed below… 1. Distraction Parents who are tech experts often go through this dilemma. Since being online is related to their work, it is very important for them to set boundaries for their kids. It is well known how kids are bound to imitate parents behavior. Parents are often worried about the break kids take from studies. These little breaks are healthy and necessary. Though, the key worry can be about how often these breaks are taken and how much is the kid distracted from the habit of social media use. It is easy to quickly turn to phone monitoring app but it is important to have a healthy conversation about it first. It is important to set boundaries through these talks and make them aware of what importance this holds for them. 2. Privacy Kids are a curious and easily excitable bunch of audience for anyone. They often jump to actions without much thought and analyses. Such real-life behavior crossing over to social media sites shouldn’t be a surprise. So, it is important to talk to them about the importance of being discreet online. Publicly revealing all their private and key information should be a no-go zone. The reasons for that need to be told to them in details. It is important for them to know the difference between information that is okay to be shared publicly and information that should remain private. If every photo and info with revealing information about your child is available publicly, then complete strangers can take advantage of it. Whether it is a name, email id with a name or the address, the importance of keeping such information private can’t be overstated. A cell phone monitoring software is used by some parents as a possible solution to ensure their kids follow privacy concerns. 3. Facebook Depression Internet and social media sites serve a great purpose. They educate everyone on a whole range of topics in very creative and entertaining ways. There are fun posts and pages for entertainment. Then there is the darker side of the same place. Researchers in AAP (American Society of Pediatrics) some while ago coined a term called ‘Facebook Depression’. The phrase details the potential problems caused by social media on everyone, especially teenagers. What it means is that young users may see status updates, wall posts, and photos that can cause a negative effect on their psyche. They can feel psychologically inferior and failure when seeing the happy posts of their online friends. This can cause a ripple effect. It may possibly harm their self-esteem, even in the long run if they are extra sensitive. If not handled correctly and at the right time then this could be quite detrimental to their mental health. 4. Online Reputation The fact that employers check every interviewee’s social media handles before an interview is a well-known fact now. This was something the current working generation discovered a little late but the teenagers will not have any excuse at all. Online reputation is decided by a host of factors. The kind of posts you post online on this kind of websites is a big factor. It could be a photo, a video, a post or an angry or a derogatory comment about something or someone could hugely backfire in the future. Kids need to be reminded by their parents about the permanence of their online activities. They need to be realized that once something is posted online, it never goes offline. It can not only ruin their employment changes but also their public reputation. Possible Solutions from Harmful Social Media Learning about these social media dangers is a crucial first step for every parent. What follows is the urge to seek solutions for these pressing problems because social media is not going away any time soon. Instead of burying your head in the sand, it is urgent to face the music and figure out a solution to these issues that come up because of social media. Written below are some of these possible solutions. Take a look… 1. Get Educated on Social Media Before trying to keep your kids safe on these social media sites, it is important for parents to get themselves familiar with how these sites work. Parents should get immersed in today’s technology on a daily basis. The kids will insist on avoiding your presence there but it is important for you to know what she is posting. If there is anything embarrassing or possibly troubling then you can warn them in time. 2. Keep Internet use in Common Area Most of the problem on social media usage comes from closed doors use. People and especially teenagers tend to be too unhinged when there is an element of secrecy involved in the activity. Use of a common family room that is frequently used can be a cool, new place to keep their activities open to the family. Behavioral experts say this has shown to have an adverse effect on the child’s ability to visit dangerous sites or chats of these sites. In fact, until your kids attain a certain age you can ensure that they use a shared family system. This will prevent them from surfing any objectionable content and puts a time limit on their use too which will obviously benefit them health wise. 3. Discipline A Schedule It is important for kids should early on learn the importance of discipline. One of the key ways to do this is set a specific schedule for every kind of activity, from school days to holidays. A scheduled itinerary for every day will avoid any confusion between a parent and a child regarding the timing of activities. You can determine when your child can access the internet and when they can’t. When such a disciplined way of life becomes the norm for your children there will come a time when they will be more responsible for every activity. 4. Be Involved It is always stressed by child experts how important it is to stay involved in your child’s daily life. If you are wondering about the reason, then it is simply to be pointed out that the internet is home to thousands of websites. All these websites can be found on social media. As an adult, you are much more likely to identify these problematic websites than your child. Then there are a bunch of predators and frauds parading as someone else. People as old as 60 will try to pretend as someone belonging to their age. Depending on whether it is a girl or it is a boy, they will custom design the fake profile on these factors that make them hard to resist for these teenagers. In order to prevent these situations from becoming a reality and to avoid these fake profiles from infiltrating your kid’s life, your involvement in your kid’s life needs to be there. If there is a healthy discussion on these matters in the house then the likelihood of such predators causing any harm to your kids will be eliminated. There are people who stress that person to person interaction is the only way to counsel kids with ways like the steps mentioned above. They will protest against using any technology to spy on kids citing privacy and trust issues. Though, what is undeniable is the advantage these mobile spy software’s give to the concerned parents. Let’s have a brief look. Advantage of Mobile Security App Recent years have seen the mushrooming of mobile spy software industry and it is happening with good reason. Family members stay from the eyes of each other for a better half of the day. Let’s see some of these advantages… 1. Remote Spy A reliable cell phone monitoring software can remotely and very discreetly spy on the target mobile. In some cases, you need a brief amount of excess to the phone and the software gets downloaded very quickly. The software remains hidden on the target mobile without alerting the target user about its presence. 2. Affordable There are mobile spy software’s that are quite affordable. This becomes possible because of the wide range of plans that are available at unique price points for different kinds of customer needs and the number of mobile devices to spy on. 3. Customer Support The old method of spying was private detectives or personal help. Both were full of risks and things would get quite messy. These software’s have customer support to navigate the user through any confusion or problem. Best Social Media Monitoring Apps After knowing the key advantages of mobile spy software that can let you monitor your child’s social media, let’s go through a list of such apps. Below is the list of the 5 best social media monitoring apps for responsible parents out there.
1. Spymaster Pro Due to its 24*7 customer support that makes after sales experience a satisfying experience for its users, Spymaster Pro is loved by consumers and experts. This gives a reliable and trustworthy edge. Plus, it is quite affordable as it starts at just 4.99$ per month and the easy user interface makes the deal quite attractive. It is compatible with not just the latest Android and iOS versions but also with all the browsers. At important festivals throughout the year, there are discounts. It also allows you to spy on iPhone without jailbreak with no extra cost. 2. My Mobile Watchdog My mobile watchdog gives multiple devices but it is also quite costly at 100$ per month. In addition, the website is quite confusing to navigate and the features appear limited. There is no Geo-fencing and the tools appear untidy. 3. SecureTeen SecureTeen provides some standard spying features and the cost is a little affordable. Premium comes at 39.99$ for a year and Premium Plus comes at 69.99$ for a year. Although it is for a year and for 3 devices the facilities are mostly restricted to Android. 4. WebWatcher WebWatcher is a well-known monitoring software to monitor kids. It’s services come at a premium at 39.95$ for a month, 59.95$ for 3 months and 129.95$ for a year. There are no discounts available and the customer service does suffer. 5. SpyBunker Spybunker with a simple website and pricing plan at 29.99$ per month for Personal bunker and 49.99$ per month for Nuclear Bunker. It is a little costly though and then the key features are limiting too. Ensuring kid’s safety is a big concern for every parent and social media has only made the task much tougher. It is tightrope on how to handle the issue with care and not appearing controlling in your kid’s eyes. Social media can be positive for the kid’s future but the dangers need to be kept in mind too. So, cell phone monitoring software can be of help if personal methods do not yield the desired results. Also Read:-Is it possible to Track My Cheating Wife’s Activities Online? |
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