A Parents’ Guide to Instagram: How to Keep Your Children Safe on the Platform

Nowadays, it is difficult as a parent to supervise what your children are doing online. It may seem like uploading photos and watching videos are second nature for teens. In reality, a lot of them put a lot of thought into what they post online. Likewise, it is hard to know how to have a regular conversation with our teens and keep them safe as the parents also learn how to navigate Instagram itself.

With an Instagram account, teenagers and children who make up a large portion of the user base of the site can upload photos and videos. They can also post 15-second stories that will vanish in 24 hours. In addition, Instagram allows users to connect with friends, send private messages, watch IGTV, and browse billions of images. These are the activities that teenagers do almost the whole day. 

There is no doubt about the advantages of having children interacting with their peers on social media at the right age. Platforms such as Instagram are full of motivation for children to celebrate other people's accomplishments and to be innovative with how they express themselves. 

However, younger children cannot understand the implications of their online activities, which may position them in situations of compromise. These are threats that are being taken seriously by the popular photo-sharing app. There are a lot of tools you can share with your children that will give them the proper knowledge about their digital identity. Simple physical protection and security are taught to every child. For instance, we teach them to not talk to strangers or fasten seat belts when driving. 

Teaching easy-to-learn life lessons for online safety and privacy to young people starts with parents leading the way. The same thing applies to how parents should teach their children how to make their Instagram account safer. Thus, here are some effective ways on how you will guide your children in terms of buying followers on Instagram.

Managing Privacy

One of the first things you want your teen to learn is telling them that their account should be private. It can be as easy to lock down your privacy on Instagram as setting your profile to “private.” But you can get much more granular than that. In fact, you can put in place a range of other protections. You can keep your account public, but make it a bit more stable, or even add more stringent protections than you get by simply flipping the private profile switch. 

To lock down your children’s profile, setting the account to private is the best thing you can teach them to do. It means that no one will see their pictures or stories in the future unless you approve of them. Once their account is private, only their name and profile picture can be seen by new individuals who checks out their profile. Making sure they know that they have power over who sees and interacts with the stuff they share online would encourage them to feel like they can be on Instagram themselves.

Account Privacy 

There are two account options available to Instagram users under ‘Account protection' in the settings: public and private. Any user of Instagram can access and follow a public account. This is helpful for those who wish to have a huge following on social media, but it raises a host of security issues. You never know who may communicate with the images and videos of your child. 

In addition, allowing them to set their profile in public will let harassers send inappropriate messages and comments to them. For this reason, teach your children to set their accounts in private. It is done by selecting “Account Privacy” in the settings. Private accounts mean that no one can see your teen's content unless they approve it. This will protect the sensitive details of your child from ending up in the wrong hands.

Block Unnecessary Interactions

Your teen can block accounts that they do not want to communicate with. This would prohibit individuals from viewing their updates, stories, live broadcasts, and comment on their posts.  

Managing Interactions

Help your kids realize that it is easy to copy any details they exchange online and is virtually impossible to take back. Tell them that they can block accounts with which they don't want to connect with or those that feel like a threat to them. 

Manage Comments

All social media platforms allow you to moderate the comments that appear on your posts. Change the settings of your account so that the comments will be filtered. This way, you can review comments on your post before allowing them to appear in your comments section. 

That is the safest way to maintain strict control over the discussion and ensure that things remain civilized. There are platforms where the comments are obviously not maintained or regulated in any way. There we have seen how easily the discourse can go from polite to rude, unwelcoming, and disrespectful comments.

Block Comments 

Instagram has not avoided scrutiny. Wildly successful as it is, the platform is filled with negative consequences of trolling and cyberbullying that affect most of the users. For this reason, Instagram now provides users with four different settings. It has extended the Comment Controls portion of the app to allow different groups of users to comment. 

You can access Comment Controls by navigating to your profile and clicking the Settings button. Then scroll down to the Configuration section and press ‘Comments'. The default setting,' Anyone' puts no limits on who can comment. But you can also opt to keep a smaller circle of commentators on your posts from ‘People you follow and your followers',' People you follow ‘or' Your followers'. 

You also have the ability to block comments on an individual basis from other Instagram users. For instance, if one user leaves offensive or just unwelcome comments on a regular basis, you can now make their comments invisible to anyone but them.

Conclusion 

Those are the essential tips about the proper use of social media specifically, Instagram. Remind your children and members of the family about the basic rules and that they still apply online.

What they do online will affect other individuals positively or negatively. Pay attention to the online settings used by your children and consider them. Good and poor neighborhoods exist in the real world, and the online world is no different. Help them find websites and applications that are secure and trusted. Encourage them to be careful about the content being clicked, downloaded, posted, and uploaded.

Date: June 4, 2021 / Categories: Tips, / Author: Joy P