A recent University of Iowa study found almost half of all parents say they don’t monitor or restrict their teenagers’ internet and social media use, and a mental health care professional says that needs to change.
Sarah Long, a psychologist at Gundersen Health System, says parents need to be actively aware of what their kids are doing on social media platforms.
“It’s not necessarily a crisis, because it absolutely has some potential benefits for kids and teens, but left unchecked, it could certainly become a crisis within individual families,” Long says, “just based on exposure that kids might have to content or people that their parents might not approve of, or ways that kids might be sharing information that parents really need to be aware of.”
Sarah Long (Gundersen photo)
Misinformation abounds on the internet, Long says, as so many things that look legitimate are not factual at all.
“And so it’s very important that parents are aware of what their kids are accessing and how that’s impacting their education, their beliefs, things that they think are true around their own health or sexual health,” Long says. “Those are things that we certainly don’t want them finding misinformation online and assuming those things are true with great consequences.”
Parents should set guidelines before allowing their kids to launch social media accounts, she says, and they need to be up front about how they’ll much they’ll supervise.
“We certainly don’t want to take a one-size-fits-all approach with that either,” she say. “If your child is being very responsible in their use of social media, then we don’t have to breathe down their neck and read every single message that they send. But it’s like any trust situation, where that trust is earned, and if that trust is broken, then we need to back things off and re-earn that trust again.”
If teens demand their privacy, Long says parents should respond that their safety is more important.
“Teens absolutely want their privacy, but they are also apt to sometimes make not-the-best choices,” she says, “and parents need to provide that same oversight as they would if they want privacy with their significant other or their friends, but haven’t always made the right choices.”
Social media can be an important tool as teens enter college or the workforce, as it can be a great way to meet people and communicate, but Long says it’s important that they also be able to do the same things in person.
Gundersen Health System has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.
发表回复