Beyond the Buzz: Tips for Managing Social Networking Sites

Social Media Resources for Parents and Teens

Every day, adolescents are exposed to countless messages in¬tended to educate, entertain, or influence their behavior. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are great for instantly connecting and sharing information with friends and family. However, the freedom and communication that comes with these forms of media can also create new risks to a teen’s health and well-being. It takes a committed effort from both parents and teens to monitor the information teens encounter online, and to accurately interpret the messages and intentions of these external influences.

The following websites provide extra information to help teens and parents protect themselves online: 

Healthychildren.org Media Information

HealthyChildren.org is a parent-focused website produced by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This site includes general information related to child health as well as information for more specific guidance on parenting issues, including media guidelines. Wondering what the right age is to give your teen a cell phone? What do all those online acronyms mean? How should cyber-bullying be addressed? For these answers, plus the answers to many other topics that revolve around adolescent media use, please visit the following site.

• For parents: http://www.healthychildren.org/english/family-life/media/Pages/default.aspx

Facebook Safety

This site provides a summary of one of the most popular social networking site’s current policies for protecting users, including tips to help parents & teens maximize their online safety as well as tools to help guide users through the site’s various privacy settings. Go to: http://www.facebook.com/safety

• For parents: http://www.facebook.com/safety#!/safety/groups/parents/
• For teens: http://www.facebook.com/safety#!/safety/groups/teens/

Common Sense Media

This is a website dedicated to educating parents about age-appropriate media use. Looking for a video game review for your child’s age group? What about advice on media-related topics? This site covers it all.

• For parents: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

NetSmartz Workshop

As a concerned parent, it is natural to wonder what your teen is doing for all of those hours spent online. What can you do to keep your adolescent safer? NetSmartz Workshop offers tips and discussion starters for over 10 online-related topics that can affect you and your teen.

• For parents: http://www.netsmart.org/parents
• Looking for even more information to navigate your way through this technological world? Visit: http://www.netsmartz.org/tipsheets
• For teens: http://www.netsmartz.org/teens