Do You Know What Your Children Are Doing on Social Media?

For many parents, handing a child a phone or tablet has become an ordinary part of everyday life. It is a way to keep them occupied while dinner is being prepared, work is being done or errands are being handled, and it is how they keep in touch with friends and family.

Increasingly, social media and digital platforms are also spaces where children learn, discover new interests, find educational resources and develop the digital skills they will need as they grow.

While technology isn’t the problem, there lies an important question every parent should ask themselves. Do you actually know what your child is doing online?

Children today are growing up in a digital world, and learning how to navigate that world is becoming increasingly important. Social platforms can help children connect with friends and relatives, discover educational content, explore hobbies and interests, practise communication skills and encounter perspectives and ideas beyond their immediate environment.

For older children and teenagers especially, online spaces can become part of how they learn, socialise and express themselves. Keeping children completely away from technology may therefore not be practical, or even particularly helpful.

Children need opportunities to develop digital literacy: the ability to understand, question and use digital spaces responsibly.But giving a child access to the internet does not automatically teach them how to use it safely.

What are they actually doing online?

A child saying, “I’m just watching videos,” does not tell you very much.

What kind of videos? Are they age appropriate? Educational? Entertaining?

Who are they talking to? What accounts do they follow? What kind of content is appearing on their feed?

Are they posting pictures or videos of themselves? Are they participating in group chats? Are strangers contacting them?

Have they encountered something frightening, sexual, violent or otherwise inappropriate?Are they being bullied or bullying someone else?

These are uncomfortable questions, but they are necessary ones. Children may not always recognise when an online interaction has crossed a boundary.

A message from a stranger may seem harmless. A joke between friends may become cyberbullying. A trend that looks entertaining may encourage children to share personal information or images they later regret posting. Because social media can move so quickly, something shared in seconds can potentially reach a much larger audience than a child intended.

Digital literacy means more than knowing how to use a phone. A digitally literate child is not simply one who knows how to download an app, create an account or scroll through TikTok and Instagram.

Digital literacy also means understanding what should and should not be shared online. Children should know not to share sensitive personal information with strangers, how to recognise suspicious messages and accounts, how to respond to cyberbullying, how to report inappropriate behaviour and when to tell a trusted adult that something has made them uncomfortable.

They should also learn that not everything they see online is true. Social media is full of edited images, misleading information, advertising disguised as entertainment and people presenting carefully selected versions of their lives.

Teaching children to question what they see is just as important as teaching them how to find it.

Don’t wait until something goes wrong.

One of the easiest mistakes parents can make is assuming that their child will come to them if something happens online.

Children may be embarrassed, frightened that their devices will be taken away or unsure whether what happened to them is serious enough to mention.

That is why conversations about online safety should happen before there is a problem.

Ask your children about the platforms they use. Ask what they enjoy about them. Ask who they interact with. Talk about cyberbullying, privacy, strangers online and inappropriate content.

Let them know that they can come to you when something feels wrong without immediately fearing punishment. And where appropriate, make use of parental controls, privacy settings and age restrictions.

These tools are not substitutes for conversation, but they can provide an additional layer of protection. Keep an eye on their digital world.

Children deserve room to explore, learn and connect. Social media can be part of that experience, but access without guidance is not digital literacy.

If your child is old enough to have a social media account, they are old enough to begin learning how to use it responsibly, and that learning requires adults to be involved.

So the next time you see your child scrolling through their phone, don’t just ask whether they have finished their homework. Ask them what they’re watching. Ask who they’re talking to. Ask what they are learning. And most importantly, pay attention to the digital world your child is growing up in.