As you may have seen recently, the Utah State Legislature (SB152), Governor and Attorney General (potential lawsuit), are actively pursuing efforts to regulate children’s access to social media. This comes from years of evidence showing that social media can have a harmful impact on kids – both physically and emotionally.
We get it – monitoring smartphones is hard work for parents. And mobile devices do offer many important features. In fact, the SafeUT app, as one example, has actually saved lives.
Nevertheless, information is power; and our friends at Granite School District have created an excellent guide, “Knowing What’s on Your Child’s Smartphone,” that will make you aware of many of the main social media apps that kids have access to currently.
This information gives you a brief overview of them, talks about “jail breaking” and “rooting,” basic internet and smartphone safety, and provides a list of acronyms, slang, and resources to monitor your student’s use.
We encourage all parents to take another look at your child’s smartphones. See what apps they are using, discuss with them related safety issues with each, connect with their accounts in whatever way is appropriate. Lastly, model good social media etiquette and behavior to them, so they understand as they become adults what’s appropriate.
Click here to review Granite School District’s guide to Knowing What’s on Your Child’s Smartphone.
