PARENTS MUST BE ACTIVE IN MANAGING THE ONLINE INTERACTIONS OF THEIR CHILDREN

Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 28, 2021 (SKNIS): Adults and teenagers alike have been more and more active on social media platforms as access to technology continues to grow. On the October 27, 2021, edition of ‘Working For You’, Ms. Tracey Wattley, a Guidance Counsellor at the Cayon High School stated that parents should be more active in managing their children’s use of various social media platforms.
 
“You have to be aware when your child is doing something that is not a norm, something that is just different about your child’s behavior. Because that is one of the first indicators to make it your business to search and see what is happening…You have their passwords and search and make sure that you are looking to see what it is that they do. I have known students that have two or three Facebook accounts, fake profiles and they are going to add you to the profile they want you to see then they are going to have the ones that they do not want you to see. These are the things we should look out for when we are looking after our children, there is no shame in it,” said Ms. Wattley.
 
Cyberbullying has been on the increase over time, as younger children are now finding ways to access social media platforms. Ms. Wattley naming the social theory has attributed the actions of some young persons to similar behavior of their parents, noting that parents should be cautious of their online activity while also taking into consideration the personal rights of their children as it relates to posting their photos and personal information on social media.
 
“It goes back to us as adults we have to portray the behavior that we want children to portray. I believe in social theory; I believe as monkeys see monkeys do and if we as the adults are supposed to be the ones guiding them and this is what we are doing, of course, they are going to do the same things…Parents are the ones sometimes who are putting all this personal information on Facebook about their children; we do not have intimate home moments anymore. We take pictures of them in the bath as babies, we put it up on Facebook, everything we do we put it on social media,” said Wattley.