December 16, 2014

Kids on Facebook? How to keep them safe on social media
 

 Amber Hunt, Cinncinnati News - December 16, 2014

"How to keep your children safe on Facebook, Instagram, other social media, from newborns to high schoolers. Internet security experts offer tips by age range.

After John Juech welcomed his dark-haired, doe-eyed daughter, Josephine, into his life last May, he announced her arrival on Facebook.

The decision to splash little Josie's face on social media came with some debate.

'I thought about it, and my wife talked about it a lot," said Juech, 35, of Clifton, who works as senior policy adviser to Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black. "We thought, what are the implications? As parents, your first concern is never doing anything that adversely affects your kids in any way.'

How much to share of your kids on social media is a quandary every parent faces. Ask anyone with a Facebook profile, and – regardless of their own parental status – they can attest how freely many parents share information about their children online. Some adults even bypass Facebook's 13-year age limit and set up profiles for their newborns.

'Embrace the technology, but be aware that it opens you up to all the good in the world and all the evil in the world at once," said Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of Enough Is Enough^®, a Connecticut-based nonprofit that aims to make the Internet safer for children. "Adults need to think before we post: If this gets in the wrong hands, how could it be used to hurt me or my child?'" Read the entire article here.