How to guide children to use social media ...

Many parents are concerned about the question: "At what age is it advisable to allow children to use social networks on the Internet?" There are misconceptions among adults about social networks of the Internet and their harm to schoolchildren. Often they only increase anxiety and do not contribute to constructive resolution of conflict situations that may arise regarding online communication of children.

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Nick Bilton, a reporter for The New York Times, wrote an article on a worldwide family problem - how to introduce children to the Internet. One day, Nick's nine-year-old nephew David asked him to help register his own YouTube account.

Nick thought hard and came up with an interesting theory about when kids should start using social media on their own. It turned out that David, like many boys of his age, plays the popular online game Minecraft and wants to share his game videos with the whole world.

Nick knew about the dangers of the network, he was worried that some YouTube commentators might offend his little nephew. Nick seriously thought, because, unlike Barbie or LEGO, the internet does not have a recommended minimum age. There is no government-established age limit on the Internet, as is the case with alcohol or driving.

There is not even any parenting guide. Although, if such a guide existed, it would be instantly outdated: new social networks appear almost every week. Nick came up with an idea: it is necessary to conditionally divide social networks into three groups.

The first group is public sites (Instagram, Twitter and YouTube), where all posts are visible to other users by default. This is good from a parent's point of view: they can still keep track of every little thing their kids post. And if they write something superfluous, you can always have an educational conversation with them.

The second group includes apps like Snapchat and Telegram, in which messages disappear as soon as they are viewed. For parents, this means that the child can share anything with anyone, and it is almost impossible to control this process.

But there is also a positive point here - messages are deleted, which means that they will not fall into the field of view of attackers and advertisers. The third group is anonymous applications (Secret and YikYak), which allow you to say whatever you want, while remaining incognito.

According to Nick Bilton, these instant messengers can be useful for children who want to express their feelings anonymously. But they are also dangerous. For example, cyber-bullies can say whatever they want there without any consequences.

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In the end, Nick came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with allowing children to register on public social networks from the age of ten, with certain restrictions.

Social media can be useful for children, but parents should closely monitor what their children write and educate them about the potential dangers in the virtual world. After much deliberation, Nick allowed his nephew to register his own YouTube account, but with one caveat: his account settings should prevent unauthorized users from leaving comments.

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