Facebook and schools have been at odds for years. Whether it’s teachers posting drunk photos or students bullying each other, privacy concerns or inappropriate content, Facebook and school boards regularly have issues. Some states like Missouri have even banned student teacher friendships over Facebook.

Keeping Your Teen Safe on: Part I – Part II – Part III

Before 2004, if you had heard the word Facebook, you might have envisioned some kind of high school picture directory or a picture book that teaches how to draw cartoon faces.

Seven years and 600 million users later, Facebook means a lot more than that: for both you and your teen.

Headlines like this, this, and this are very sobering. Unfortunately, stories like these…

A recent study done by the American Psychological Association found that of all internet offenders only 5 percent pretended to be teenagers. Most of the time teens met with offenders more than 1 time. They also found that teens who engaged in risky behaviors like maintaining friend lists with people they did not know were much more likely to receive online sexual solicitations. The problem is, most teens are still not as concerned about the risks of sharing information and photos to the public.

As this story unfolded and I was left all day without access to some of my favorite social networks and worse yet the tools and 3rd party apps I use, along with millions of other users experiencing those same problems… if large companies and major corporations can have these kinds of attacks, what makes us think we are not just as vulnerable even more so, because we assume we are protected… oh MY!!

By educating your children to these techniques you can greatly increase their ability to spot a sexual predator before they have had a chance to steal the child’s trust. You should also make sure that your children know to tell you or someone they trust if they ever encounter someone they expect of using one of these techniques either on the internet or in real life.