Your child’s friends are everywhere.
They’re at school, where they spend most of their time during the week.
They’re at extracurricular activities — church, cheerleading, baseball — where they meet students from other schools and nearby towns.
They’re at summer camps and swim practice, at dance lessons and Bible study.
Your child’s friends are everywhere — even in their pocket.
Cell phones and portable electronic devises have made it easier for kids to check social media outlets. According to Pew Research Center, 92% of teens between the ages of 13 to 17 go online daily.
While there are benefits to the widespread use of social media, the Plant City Police Department wants children and their parents to understand it’s not just their “friends” who see what they post.
Earlier this month, the Tomlin Middle School PTSA invited local law enforcement, including PCPD, to speak to students about social media safety. With summer rapidly approaching, PCPD recommends these tips for keeping kids safe online.
Monitor Phone #Usage
Even if kids don’t have a social media account, it’s likely they still connect with their friends through their cell phones — especially texting.
“Parents need to monitor phone usage in some form or fashion,” Officer John McDowell, who spoke to parents at Tomlin, said. “Look through them, once a month or every few months.”
Additionally, McDowell said, parents have the right to take the phone or go through it at any time as long as their child is under the age of 18.
“As long as (a child) is under 18, they own nothing,” McDowell said. “Parents just need to be active in their kids’ lives.”
McDowell recommends parents have open conversation with their kids about phone usage. If a kid is using an app the parent is unfamiliar with, he recommends the parent look into it.
“Parents don’t even have to be computer savvy to know what their kids are doing or who they’re talking to,” McDowell said.
Know The #Risks
According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 40% of all teenagers have “posted or sent sexually suggestive messages.”
While there are dangers of such a photo going to more than one person — the same study revealed 17% of teens share those messages with other people — McDowell said kids can face legal repercussions just for taking such a photo.
“Once it’s sent out, this stuff has a way of getting out to everybody,” McDowell said. “It’s still considered child porn. If they’re under 18, it is child porn. They don’t understand that it’s a crime.”
According to McDowell, taking such a photo can lead to a production of pornography charge, while sending one can lead to a distribution charge. Having a suggestive photo on one’s phone classifies as possession.
Charges can lead to a child being labeled as a sex offender.
“That’s three charges from just one photo,” he said. “And that follows you for the rest of your life.”
Go With Your #Gut
If something seems off, it probably is, according to PCPD Sgt. Al Van Duyne.
“Go with your gut feeling,” he said. “Nine out of 10 times, it won’t steer you wrong.”
According to a 2015 study done by Pew Research Center, 57% of teens between the ages of 13 to 17 have made a new “friend” online, and 20% of all teens have met an online friend in person.
By reviewing content and paying attention to their children, McDowell said parents should be able to gauge who their child’s real friends are.
“You can gauge motives based on what they’re talking about,” he said. “There will be a difference in 9-year-olds and people posing as 9-year-olds.”
Parents can use intuition when it comes to cyberbullying, an online form of harassment that 43% of teens were victims of in 2014, according to the National Crime Prevention Council.
The symptoms of cyberbullying are visible off-screen too. Van Duyne said parents of cyberbullying victims will likely see physiological changes in their children. If their child is depressed, not eating or obsessed with their phone or computer, they could be victims.
For Van Duyne and McDowell, it’s just another reason why parents should keep a close eye on their child’s virtual world.
“Parents know their kids,” McDowell said. “When they see a drastic behavior change … they can dig deeper.”
Keep Content #Appropriate
Even if a kid or teen marks one of their social media sites as private, having just one friend on social media with a public profile can enable about anyone to access their content.
“Social media is following (people) in a way that nothing was prior to that,” McDowell said. “Social media is documenting their life in a way the world has never seen before. It’s searchable documentation. It’s not deleted. If it’s deleted, it can be retrieved.”
McDowell recommends kids be mindful of what they post on social media, as it is often looked at by colleges and potential employers. If a parent doesn’t like what a kid has posted, it’s likely a college admissions counselor wouldn’t either.
“Be mindful of what you put out there,” McDowell said.
Know #Where They Go
For many parents, keeping a close eye on what kids do online during the summer is now easier than ever.
Parents can monitor their kids’ computer usage through websites, including NetNanny.com, WebWatcher.com and McAfee Safe Eyes.
Parents also can track where their kids are, especially if they use Twitter. Twitter uses a GPS stamp on all Tweets, and parents can see where their kids have posted from on various sites. TweetPaths.com, for example, only requires a Twitter user’s username to show location stamps, and it’s free to use.
“Anybody has access to that,” McDowell said. “You give me one of these kids, and I can lay out their day or their week just based on their Internet activity. I can pretty much track their life through social media. And if I can’t find them, I can usually find a friend.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.