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Wait until your child is old enough to get a social media account. Friend or follow your child. Allow your child the right amount of privacy. Have a shared computer. Make sure global location settings are off. Learn text language.
All social media sites have minimum age requirements to be able to sign up for an account. These ages are put into place to protect the privacy of children and young people. Make sure not to allow your child to have a social media account when they are younger than the required age. When they reach the minimum age, decide if you feel they are mature enough to sign up for an account.  For Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Pinterest, a person must be 13 to get an account. Although YouTube requires a person to be 18, someone who is 13 can sign up with parental permission. Vine and Tinder require a person to be 17 to hold an account. When your child has a social media account, friend or follow that account. Talk to them about which sites they are using, and if you don't understand how the site works, have your child explain it to you. This can help you monitor what your child is doing online and who they are talking to.  Your child might have social media sites you don't know about. Browse through downloaded apps on their phone or watch which apps they're using to see what social media sites they are a member of. Be aware some social media sites have options that allow members to choose who sees the posts. You child might be following or friended with you, but they could filter the post so you can't see it. You also might be able to see what their interests are or if something is wrong with your child by reading their posts. As your child grows up, you want to give them privacy and trust them. This means not going behind their back and checking on everything they do. However, you should keep an eye on what your child does online.  When younger teens get social media sites, make sure to get their passwords for the sites. This can help you watch over their online activities. For older teens, you may allow them more privacy by letting them have their own private passwords. Check their Internet history. This will show you what sites your teen has been visiting. You can also check your child's phone. However, this may cause a problem with your child if they believe you are invading their privacy and not trusting them. Use your judgment for how often and when you check these things. You may hold checking Internet and phone histories for when your child gives you a reason to not trust them or when you believe their privacy is at risk. You can also install apps such as Net Nanny or WebWatcher. Your child will never know these apps are on the computer, and they will alert you to things that may jeopardize the safety of your child. Another way to keep your child safe on social media is to have a shared computer. This means the child doesn't have their own laptop in their room where they can hide what they do from you. Instead, they use the computer in a central location in the house where you can monitor what they do. To protect your child, turn off the location settings. Location settings allow social media sites to add the location of the person when they post a photo or an update. By turning this off, it keeps people from knowing exactly where your child is and places they frequent often. Location settings may post the city that the person is in, the name of restaurant or store, or even the address. Social media, text, and sexting have their own language. Knowing some of the language, or know where to look up acronyms, may help you really know what your child is talking about. Sexting particularly has its own language, and parents should be aware of this so they can address the situation if it arises.