So what can a parent do to help keep their child safe online? Also how can you give kids the freedom to explore while still keeping an eye on their safety? Herb Tabin and Craig Agranoff social media experts and Co-Authors of Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management (http://doityourselfonlinereputationmanagement.com), $24.95 ISBN-13: 978-0578050867 have some simple advice.
Herb Tabin suggests that the first thing parents need to do is educate themselves on social media and social media websites. “Parents need to learn about these websites having their own experiences on Facebook LinkedIn, MySpace and such so they have a better understanding of the allure, the possibilities, and the pitfalls children and teens face being on these sites” “Secondly, as a parent the second most important step you can take, especially when it comes to younger children, is to set up their social media accounts for them. As the person completing the sign-up process from day one this will establish you as the gatekeeper of social media and not a barrier for your kid to try and circumvent. As such you can become part of their online life while also monitoring it”
Craig Agranoff suggests focusing on the Privacy Settings. “Privacy Settings are important tools that provide a substantial level of protection for social media users. “If your child or teen is on a social networking website, you must make sure that they know how to keep their updates from public view and if they don’t you must do it for them”. Additionally, being a member of the same websites your children belong to is also helpful. While you need not be an “active participant”
Overall kids need to be told that the most important rules are – don’t do anything online that you wouldn’t want anyone else to see or was inappropriate and secondly the only thing worse than sharing something inappropriate online with one person is sharing it with the whole world and that’s what social networking websites can do.
About the Book- Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management
With the Internet, untruths, lies, exaggerations are easy to spread. And in this brave new frontier the Internet has become a place where the attackers have gained the upper hand, and the people who are victims are disadvantaged -- but you don't need to feel powerless any longer. If you know how to type in a web address, you can learn how to claim, repair, and monitor your online reputation. There is no software to buy, or computer languages to learn. This book teaches you how to get bad stuff about you off Google -- and good stuff on. Anybody can repair an online reputation using the simple, step-by-step guides in this book - a guide that that requires absolutely no programming or web development experience. With this book you will learn: * How to have search engines show what you want them to display about you * How to suppress information on search engines * How to remove information from search engines. Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management is now available on Amazon.com bit.ly/9o62lA
About the Authors
Craig Agranoff
Craig Agranoff (www.craigagranoff.com)
Herbert Tabin
Herbert Tabin (www.herbtabin.com)
