Social Media Dangers PT 4

Part 4

The Final Chapter!

The Dangers of Social Media and our Neurodivergent Children

Some of the comments on this post are my personal opinions on what I have found to be true in my family. My opinions may be different from yours.

I can’t research every social media Chat platform but here is an additional list of some chatting platforms to keep watch of:

CHATTING APPS:

Signal

23snaps

Band

Nextdoor

CaringBridge

MyHeritage

HalloApp

Honk

MeWe

WeChat

Yabb Messenger

Line

Akko Talk ( Ka Talk)

GroupMe

Kik Messenger

Tango

Google Hangouts

Google Docs!! Yes…

Snapchat

Viber Messenger

Nimbuzz

Boxer Walkie Talkie Messenger

Also, if you google ‘Sites to Block’ on your child’s devices, you will find an entire list. Here is one link.

https://www.cisdem.com/…/websites-to-block-for-kids.html

Or easier yet, just allow certain sites on devices so you don’t have to go down a lengthy list.

FACEBOOK: We already know this platform well and most kids are not into it, because it’s for us OLD people! but some are.

We all know we can send PM’s to people on Messenger.

What about Messenger Kids?

According to what I researched, kids can add a contact to their Messenger Kids or the parent can set a control to where only approved friends can be added as well as a profile picture. Parents can monitor the chats, photos being received and sent as well as screen time. Unless the parent monitors the friends list and keeps track of their interactions, this may pose an issue. Group chats are also allowed. We never enabled this app so I’m not sure if you automatically receive alerts or if you have to go into your parent portal app to view your child’s activity. Are there loop holes in Messenger Kids? I have No idea but maybe someone here can give me more insight. This looks like the safest option so far, but again I’m not entirely familiar so I can’t really say if it is or isn’t.

Here is a link about Messenger Kids parental controls from Meta

https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/290834031507763

My advice is if a child has a smart phone is to only allow certain sites, that way they have NO way of getting onto anything else or Ditch the Web Browser.

Ditch the internet if you must. My child’s new phone has No web browser, no internet.

Many of our children do not have the maturity or discernment to know what is safe and what is not. They just innocently want to make friends.

Stay safe and if you have a young child and can prevent all of this before it happens, do it. It’s not worth the rages that Will come later on when you dismantle it all. If I could go back in time I would not have allowed any of it.

Also, if your child has a smart phone or IPad without ANY parental controls, I strongly encourage you to take a look at their search history and secure their devices appropriately. This keeps your child safe as well as others who hang out with them.

Kids are being horribly influenced on these platforms. They are being paid attention to, and given advice that may be harmful. Kids learn about eating disorders, drugs, self harm , being groomed and exposed to subject matters like suicide. They are also being influenced into thinking they are not good enough for who they are.

Take my advice, don’t give in. Don’t allow the web at all if possible. I’m all about the games (screen time is a whole other subject!) but not the web or chat interactions. It’s been one fire being put out after another as I have stated in the past posts and I don’t want Any of you or your vulnerable children to go through any of this.

If your children or teens are on any of these platforms and you feel they are ok or safe, they are only safe if you monitor them daily but even after that, it may be too late and the damage will have already been done. Do we have the Time to realistically monitor it all? The answer is no even for the Best of parents and controls set, but we must make an effort no matter how busy we get.

Monitoring App: BARK

There is an APP Called Bark that you may want to look into. Bark will alert you if there have been texts etc that seem alarming . This usually happens after the fact and won’t prevent text content but they also have other controls you many want to look into.

Here is a link to Bark Controls