Parenting Teens – privacy and internet threats

Today parents face a variety of issues with policing their teens online and with their cell phone use. It is a difficult and fine line between protecting your teens, maintaining trust and dealing with the threats and issues of their liberties and freedoms with the Internet and text messaging.

As a parent we are still responsible of our children and maintain liability over their actions. Your kids/teens may be held accountable for their actions and you may be held financially responsible for their behavior and statements. It is not always easy to deal with the issues as technology has developed faster than parents have been able to be educated.

If you are dealing with an issue within your family with interactions your kids have had online or within texting on cell phones take the time to reach out and use resources available. Hiring a mediator that can work with your teen to uncover the identity of who they are actually adding as a friend or emailing after an online introduction just may be the answer your child needs to understand not everyone is who they say they are online. Many kids think they are talking to another teen when it is really a predator. These predators are sophisticated and develop a relationship often with kids feeling insecure or disconnected from family and friends. Often just letting your teen know who is actually on the other end will stop them from continuing those relationships.

Additionally, the tools we have can help you trace emails to the source including name and number of the sender. We can run reports to show you where you teens are online, which friends they have may be a risk and content or posts that may come back to haunt your family or your teen in the future. Do your best to tackle issues immediately.

If you have any concerns please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to help or give you additional resources that are free and available to monitor and protect your teens and your family.