Ah, the age of online social media. A perfect platform for you to update your social acquaintances, happenings as well as widen and enhance your social knowledge. Social media can basically allow individuals, companies, NGOs, governments institutions and other organizations to view, create and share information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression virtually.
However, as a new study has found, parents might want to think twice before posting updates online regarding their kids. CBS News reports that researchers are in the process of focusing their attention toward parents who are fond of posting about their children online which can unconsciously bring harm.
Probable consequences of what parents are posting about their kids online are given emphasis by pediatrician Dr. Bahareh Keith and law professor Stacey Steinberg as they present their findings at a national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The said conference has also tackled certain recommendations for parents such as the need to be more careful about protecting the online identities of their children, becoming familiar with the online privacy policies and not sharing their their child's location in a post. Furthermore, it was reportedly said that both Keith and Steinberg offer guidance as to how parents would be able to safely share without consciously jeopardizing their kids' well-being.
According to TIME, the study's lead authors Keith and Steinberg have also suggested the need for parents to provide their children with some agency over their social media identity by giving the kids the freedom to reject photos and other posts about them as soon as children are old enough to administer their own social media accounts.
Moreover, Dr. Bahareh Keith, who also happens to be the director of the pediatric global health track and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine has also claimed that parents should somehow consider things that will be able to protect their children while internet is being used. Keith has admittedly said that for parents including herself are usually unaware that their use of social media can in fact affect their children's well-being.
