On Friday afternoon before school bus arrives, my mom came to my house. She is people in my kitchen to make a cup of tea, and after a few minutes my son goes to the back door. They will chat in short, but I’m never able to avoid my son to seek youtube videos on my mom’s tablet. Then they go and sit on the bed and watch videos of people who play minecraft, or super mario odysssy, or some combinations of two or more, until my husband and I have done work.
Sometimes I find myself looking at their shoulders like Formulaic videosto the same Jump cuts and Severe closelymade by people I have never heard (but in spite of millions of subscribers), play. I research social media for a living, and I still find myself wondering: Is it ok that my son looks at it? If the junk food for the brain exists, these videos will be it.
It’s obvious that I didn’t banned all the screens in my house, and I won’t tell you that it is forbidden to yours, though. But with my jobI see how few social media companies are parents and children how their systems work – and what it is to be harmful to be possible. In my recent view of algorithms driving these platforms – what they call feed algorithms – my authors, how public details are publicly transparent. It’s not okay.
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There are some good news though: by Research is not sponsored Through social media platforms, we know more about where the worst risks of children and teenagers, and what parents can do to handle risks. Understanding the plot of these systems, and talks with your child about them, one of the most powerful tools you need to be safe and support online.
Here are three things I want every parent understands about social media – and how to talk to your children about them.
Your teenager is not the customer – they are the product. I told the teen because, in general, children under 13 don’t have to be on these platforms, which sell ads. They do this by collecting good-grained data about your child watches and monetry your child’s attention to take their money now or to build a new life life for the future. Once children are over 18, social media companies can also directly sell their data brokers (as they can with you). Just remember, on social media, advertisers are customer, you are not or your child.
That doesn’t mean that people don’t even get worth from social media, but for teenagers especially, it can be difficult to understand what they have changed the leisure they have taken.
What can you do:
Talk to your children how to move the business model on the platform. Make sure they know their attention and deal is sold.
Talk to your adolescents about what they want to get out of social media. Do they want to keep their friends? Do they want to have fun with influences? Do they want to know about trends or games or fitness? Decide how they can imagine goals and how do you support it doing that. You also need to know what they (and you) and are uncomfortable to give in exchange for any amount given to social media to them.
Sit together and pass through the platform ad preferences and privacy settings. Talk about what settings do, and decide what is right for your child – and your family.
Algorithmic feeds are designed to raise use, bad. Every major platform uses feed algorithms to keep the users scrolling, viewing or clicking as much as possible by offering what the user wants to offer what the user wants. No platform I know observing a “upper bound” how well they optimize, no matter how well social media users they use it. The platforms that make it by cautious pleasure in aspects of what they showed you to feed, from mixing subjects and aspects of the users about the reactions and comments on their own content. Feed algorithms also match each user’s behavior and can easily be home to any type of content users to pay attention to or participate in most. I think even the most teenage teenager reminds that it is more understanding that you need to be healthy.
What can you do:
Talk to your children about how to work with feed algorithms. You can use the “Feed cards“My co-authors and I developed to explain how these systems work on platforms such as Gubok, YouTube and Facebook.
Ask your teen to show you their feed and scroll together. Can you “hack” to the algorithm by looking at some videos or answer some sorts of content and see how easy the algorithm is? Talk to your kids about how (even if) they can handle their experiences with their use of algorithmic feeds.
Remember that you can set limits without restriction on social media. Social media algorithms will always try to get your kids available. Some teenagers haven’t had self-control to stay away, even if they have experiences that make them bad. Something on Twitter or Facebook makes you angry? If so, that is the point of the point-of-the-facts. And if more than 25, your prefrontal cortex is fully developed – think about what your child may feel. Talk to your kids and decide the reasonable limits of how late at night they can use social media, and what time they can spend social media in general. Use in-app items to place limits, but keep in mind the children will always know how to waste it, so pay attention to where your child’s device is at all.
Moderate in the room exists, but don’t trust it. It is naturally hope that social media companies get and remove the harmful content before seeing your child. But surveys show that even young adolescents reported to see social media content that disturbed them. How can it be possible? Platforms who have taken a lot of content, but while my research manifestations, the deletion of content will always occur after feeding algorithms Destroyed content has been shown to most people to see it.
What can you do:
Don’t think that “system” gets all; It’s not.
Ask the open questions about children’s social media experiences: “What is the best thing you’ve seen in the gesture this week?” And “did you see anything that annoys or confused you this week?”
Remember that different platforms have different rules, and different implementation. If your teenager always has experiences it is not comfortable, it’s time for transit to another platform to use a given social media platform.
The bottom line
I don’t pretend to be any of these easily. My research also shows that the Transparency tools that platforms offer is difficult for users to use and understand. But we have given parents our children in their best opportunity to develop a healthy social media relationship if we continue to participate, curious, and steadfast. And finally, it is important to keep the line of some non-negotiations with the most potential cause of injury to children:
• Make sure children and teens do not have phones or social media in their bedrooms all night. Children need to sleep – not all Snapchat censers.
• Don’t let kids lie about their age to join platforms early, or to get an “teen” one if they’re under 18. on many platforms there are meaningful settings in default settings, data collection between teen and adult accounts.
I have learned more, like a researcher and a parent. But what I learned now tells me: There are ways to help teenagers have more secure, better experiences online, but the children need to be with parents and steady rules to make sure that it can be guaranteed to make sure that it will be guaranteed to make sure they can make sure that it can be guaranteed to make sure that it can be made to make sure they make sure to make sure they can make sure to make sure they can make sure that it will be guaranteed to make sure they can make sure to make sure they can make sure to make sure they can make sure to make sure they can make sure to make sure that they can make sure that it is to make sure they can make sure that it is to make sure that they can make sure that it is to make sure they can make sure that it is to make sure that it can be made to make sure that they can make sure that it is to make sure that it is to make sure they can make sure that it will be guaranteed.
