As a mother of two young school aged children, I know the importance of staying involved in their lives. Why? Well, my kids are both young, under ten years old each, and I strongly believe that being a well-defined fixture in their life young is extremely important. This will allow you (and me, of course) to be someone they can trust when they hit the dreaded teenage years.
Although my children do not use social media sites, I know that once they do get one (when they're older!), I will be on there monitoring it as well. I don't mean that I'm going to hack into their accounts, but you can bet that I will be their "friend" on FaceBook, and "follow" them on Twitter (or whatever the next big social media site is when this happens).
I don't believe that this is an invasion of privacy because like I said, I am staying involved in their lives now and defining my position in their life as a responsible and caring parent that they can go and talk to. So when they become teenagers, they know how I am, and that I will be a prominent figure in their lives.
However, another reason I believe in doing this is to protect my children while they are using the Internet. Children (and teenagers) need to be continually monitored while they are using the Internet. And going even another step besides "friending" them on social media sites, I would recommend installing some sort of Internet monitoring program. On my children's computer, they use Firefox which has a blocker add-on feature.
This add-on has pre-programmed words in it, so if my children try to access a website with these words on it, you will need to enter in a password to view the web page. The reason I chose to use this blocking program is because not only does it have pre-programmed words in it, you can also add your own words to block as well.
In conclusion, social media is a great way to keep tabs on your kids. Social media is a fun way to connect with your old friends, but it also helps you monitor your children's Internet usage and make sure that they are acting responsibly online.
