Who's Protecting YourTwitter Baby?

Everything your child publicly posts online is being recorded and archived. And that information could wreak havoc on your child’s future.
In the past, decisions to hire an employee were based on the information listed on their resume, a few phone calls, and an in-person interview. That’s about it.
Today, I don’t know a single HR department that doesn’t conduct a thorough Google and/or Facebook search on every job applicant — before they even read the entire resume.

Guideline suggestions

What sort of social media guidelines do you need to create in order to protect your children and ensure their successful future? Here are some suggestions to get you started. Decide what social media networks your children can use. Networks come and go so you’ll need to make periodic adjustments to what’s on the “approved” list. As a starting point, the current top social networks you can start looking at are; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, What topics can they talk about? Or to simplify, what topics can’t they talk about?

• Which social networks can they post to?
• What type of photos and video can they post online?
• Will your guidelines discourage them from using profanity?
• Can they post their email address online (I’d personally recommend against this)?
• What about your home address, and phone number?
• What about posting family details (names, photos, birthdate’s, announcing when and where they’re going on vacation, etc.)
• Announcing vacation details (when, where and how long)?
• Who else are they unknowingly revealing information about?

Aside from the information they personally post online, think about establishing guidelines for the types of situations your children should avoid. Situations where other people (friends, bystanders, and even boyfriends and girlfriends) can easily take photos, audio, and video of your children and post it on a social network. Even if your children aren’t the subject of the photo, their mere presence could still be damaging.

Monitoring is your friend Once you’ve decided on some ground rules, it’s time to think about how you’re going to monitor their social media travels.

Are you going to Friend them on Facebook? Follow them on Twitter? Set up Google alerts or perhaps use a social media monitoring tool?

You have a lot of options and tools available to you — and you should consider using them. Because your children will be online. They will be connecting with friends and posting more information in the future than we can even imagine.

And as much as the Internet can provide a wealth of knowledge, interaction and entertainment. It can also be the equivalent of digital quicksand that consumes everything that falls into it — including your child’s online reputation.

Have you considered creating social media guidelines for your children? What suggestions do you have?

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How much information are we sharing?

• By 2011, 20.2 million children under 11 will go online at least once per month — rising to 24.9 million kids by 2014. source
• 66% of US children and teens ages 8 to 18 had a mobile phone. (2009)
• Kids under 18 send and receive roughly 2,800 texts per month source
• 35 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute source
• 95 million updates posted to Twitter every hour. source
• 2.5 billion photos uploaded each month to Facebook source
• According to two Pew Internet Research survey’s of 700 and 935 teens, 38% of respondents ages 12 to 14 said they had an online profile of some sort.
• 61% percent of those in the study, ages 12 to 17, said they use social-networking sites to send messages to friends, and 42% said they do so every day.

Additional Reading:

• Social Screening: How Companies Are Using Social Media To Hire and Fire Employees
• Young Children Consuming More Digital Medias
• [Infographic] How Social Media is Reshaping College Admissions
• Internet Safety and Security Tips for Parents
• 80% of Children Under Age 5 Use the Internet [STATS]
• 9 in 10 Teens Have Witnessed Bullying on Social Networks
• [REPORT] Always Connected: The new digital media habits of young children
• When Should We Introduce Social Media to Kids?
• A Pocket Guide to Social Media and Kids
• Social networks and kids: How young is too young?
• Too Young to Text?
• Corporate Social Media Policies: The Good, the Mediocre, and the Ugly
• Parents need to stay aware of kids’ use of social media, warn about predators
• Connecting with Kids Online: The playground goes virtual
• Seven Ways to Keep Your Kids Safe Online