1. Make their account private
• Google how to use the privacy settings on the social-media site they’re using – it will give you instructions as to how you control who sees what your child does.
• Check and update their privacy settings regularly – get into the habit of checking them on the first of every month, for example, to make sure they haven’t changed back to the original settings.
2. Teach them to keep personal information private
• The more information your child posts, the easier it is for a someone to find them or steal their identity.
• Encourage them to check their photos and videos for any personal information before posting them.
3. Have them change their password – make it long and strong
• A strong password has a mixture of capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers and symbols.
• Having them change their password regularly (once a month should suffice) is a good idea.
• Emphasise the importance of keeping their password to themselves.
4. Teach stranger danger
• Your child should only become friends with people they actually know in real life – tell them to never accept friend requests or allow people to follow them if they have never met them personally.
• If somebody they have never met wants to be their friend or follow them online, let your child know that they can block them, report them, ignore them and tell you or another adult about it.
• If they receive a friend request from someone who says they are a friend of a friend, tell your child not to rely on their profile as proof of a relationship. Instead, they should confirm that their friend actually knows them before even considering accepting the request.
Need some more guidance? Download our Internet Agreement Form, which can be tailored to your household.