Protect kids from hazards of social media, say experts

A Kolkata woman, in her early 20s, recently filed harassment, cheating and blackmail charges against her Patna-based in-laws and husband Asif, whom she had met via Facebook.
When a teenage city girl was not allowed to step outside her home without parental supervision, she found her "real love" on Facebook and was ready to elope with him. What "saved" her was her disappointment to see that the social media profile was sea apart from the "real" guy.
A Class VI student refused to attend school, come what may, without giving any reason to his parents. The counsellor later coaxed him into revealing that his classmates were forcing him into watching lewd videos during the games period on a smartphone one of them owned.
Patna: With Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and other social media accounts only a smartphone away, youngsters and even underage kids spend a lot of time in the virtual world. For many, not posting minute-to-minute updates on "FB" or real-time photographs on Insta is considered "uncool" and "boring" and a string of health and wellness queries by peers, of course on the social media, not face-to-face.
"There is desperation among today's youth to get their every act validated for which they turn to social media. Most of them try to create their virtual image on the Internet, which is just about their happy self. For them, being out of networking sites means being out of the world and they get misled in the fantasy world," says psychologist Samidha Pandey.
Adds clinical psychologist Dr Binda Singh, "What can you expect when parents are handing smartphones even to kids to keep them engaged while they go about with their work? By the time they reach primary school, they become a master in using smartphones and laptops. If left unchecked, many of them start heading towards wrong activities."
Parents need to be aware of their kid's activities, say experts. "Spend some quality time with you children since an early age. The environment at home should be 'cool', one where kids feel free to share everything with parents and siblings," advises Dr Singh, stating that a number of kids at her counselling centre complain that their parents don't have time for them.
Experts also advise parents to put some restrictions and guidelines in place when it comes to kids using the Internet or phone. "The most common excuse kids resort to when parents accost them while using Internet is that they are browsing information relating to their schoolwork and most parents fall for that bait. Instead of always taking their word for it, it will be beneficial if you randomly check it for yourself," Dr Singh adds.
She explains, "When we were small, television was new and we refused to move away from TV screens. Laptops and smartphones are the latest fad. In a few years no one may even look at them twice, but right now it needs some control and it will be in kids' benefit if parents limited their digital time to two-three hours a day."
Posting instantaneous updates about your whereabouts can also lead antisocial elements track your activities and in turn you, which they may use for their evil designs. It is not unheard of homes being robbed because families posted vacation photographs on social media.
Engage kids in alternate activities such as reading, outdoor games and household chores, check their activity log or browser history casually and explain to them the hazards of virtual world without preaching, say experts and advise, "Don't allow them to be on social networking sites if they are underage, be strict if required. Tell them to refrain from posting private information and to put all privacy settings in place if they post personal photographs etc."