I had the privilege of attending the 5th annual National Teen Internet Safety Summit, hosted and sponsored by Cox Communications.
While it was an enjoyable event, I was far more impressed by how educational it was. I want to share some of the statistics I learned with you. As the moderator, John Walsh, said “Knowledge is power and parents need knowledge about what their kids are doing”.
- 85% of US teens have cell phones and profiles on social networks.
- 50% of those teens do not screen who looks at their profile
- Many teens do not know how to use the privacy settings on Facebook
- Texting while driving causes more car accidents then drunk driving
The Summit also made the important point that social media is not a passing fad, it is here to stay. Therefore, we as parents, need to educate ourselves and insert ourselves into our kids social media lives so that we know what is going on with them.
This Summit made me even more impressed with YourSphere, the site I have mentioned before and the work that founder, Mary Kay Hoal, is doing to protect children on the internet. Predators are out there and we need to recognize that in order to protect our children.
Feel free to link up your posts about parenting teens/tweens below:
What do you do to keep your children safe on the internet?
I am participating in the Yoursphere Test Drive program by Mom Central on behalf of Yoursphere. I received a free lifetime Gold membership on Yoursphere.com, Yoursphere t-shirts, and a $50 American Express gift card to facilitate my review.
