HELP FOR THE FAMILY | RAISING CHILDREN
Children and Social Media—Part 2: How to Teach Your Children to Use Social Media the Right Way
Social media get plenty problems, so some parents can’t allow their children to use it. But, if you allow your children to use social media, how you can help them to avoid the problems that can come, and learn how to use it the right way?
In this article
Wetin really important to your children
What you need to know: Because social media can control people, you need to help your children to know the amount of time to spend on it.
Bible advice: “Make sure of the more important things.”—Philippians 1:10.
Something to think about: Social media can affect your child sleep, schoolwork, or family life? People who can do research say young people support to sleep for nine hours. But young people who can spend plenty time on social media can’t be able to sleep for that amount of hours.
What you can do: Talk with your children about what must come first in their life, and talk about why it not good to waste plenty time on social media. Set rules like, nobody must use their electronic device when they go to bed. You doing it to help your child to know how to control their self. And it will help them when they get big.—1 Corinthians 9:25.
How your children can feel about things
What you need to know: When children see their friend them picture on social media, it can make them feel that they not enjoying their life and they missing plenty things.
Bible advice: “Rid yourselves of . . . envy.”—1 Peter 2:1.
Something to think about: Social media can make your young children feel that other people better than them? Your children can feel that everybody enjoying their self, while they just sitting down home for nothing?
Wetin you can do: Talk with your children why it not good to compare their self with other people. Remember that girls can really be affected because they can mainly focus on relationships and how their body looking. You can even suggest to your child to leave social media for some time. One young man name Jacob say: “I deleted my social-media app for some time. It help me to know what must come first in my life and change the way I see myself or other people.”
Their behavior on the Internet
What you need to know: When you on social media, it just like you in front of plenty people. It normal for people to get problem with each other on social media.
Bible advice: “Put away from yourselves every kind of malicious bitterness, anger, wrath, screaming, and abusive speech . . . Become kind to one another.”—Ephesians 4:31, 32.
Something to think about: Social media na made your children to make palava, gossip or even say bad-bad words to other people?
Wetin you can do: The book Digital Kids say: That we the parent suppose to make it clear to our children that it not good to do or say bad things on the internet, or in real life.”
Remember that it not force for everybody to use social media. In fact, some parents can’t even allow their children to use it. But if you allow your children to use social media, you must make sure that they mature enough to know how much time to spent on it, the kind na friend them to make and how to avoid looking at ugly-ugly thing them.