Social media safety: A guide for military families

While social platforms offer opportunities to foster community, network for career purposes (especially for student-athletes), and share memorable moments, they also come with risks. This is particularly true for children and teens. As military families face unique challenges such as frequent moves and distance from loved ones, maintaining a safe online presence becomes crucial.

Key Social Media Safety Tips for Military Families

1. Avoid Sharing Sensitive Information Military families should be particularly cautious about the personal information they share online. This includes specifics about deployment locations, base details, school names, or routines, as these can be used to track or target individuals. Even sharing celebratory or milestone events like promotions should be done with caution, ensuring privacy settings are set to restrict who can view the posts.
2. Utilize Kid and Teen Safety Features Social media platforms offer several features that can help ensure the safety of your children. Familiarizing yourself with these features can give you peace of mind:
   • Instagram Teen Accounts: Instagram automatically limits who can contact teens and restricts the types of content they see. Parents can also use the Family Center to monitor and manage their teen’s activity.
   • Discord’s Safe Direct Messaging: This feature scans direct messages for explicit images, offering added security for teens who use this platform for gaming or socializing.
   • Twitch’s Block Whispers from Strangers: If your child uses Twitch to stream or watch gaming content, make sure they toggle on this feature to prevent strangers from sending them private messages.
   • Franktown Rocks, Girl2Girl Wall, Sweety High, and Village: These platforms provide kid-friendly, well-monitored environments designed specifically for children and teens. They ensure a bully-free experience and give parents oversight without overly restricting the teen’s ability to engage socially.
3. Apps That Promote Safety for Kids Several apps prioritize creating a safer digital environment for young users:
   • Home Base by Scholastic: This virtual world is perfect for book lovers aged 10 and up, offering a safe and engaging space.
   • Kidzworld: With strong community standards, this app is a safe place for kids aged 11 and up to interact.
   • XooLoo Digital Coach: This app tracks teen social media usage and encourages healthier online habits, giving parents insight into how often and when their teen is engaging online.
4. Monitor Popular Social Media Platforms for Teens
   • TikTok: While TikTok offers a creative outlet for teens, it’s essential to manage privacy settings to ensure that personal details and location data are not shared. You can enable Restricted Mode to filter out inappropriate content and Family Pairing, which allows you to manage your teen’s account settings.
   • Snapchat: Because Snapchat uses a disappearing message feature, w monitoring is a little more difficult. Encourage your teen to use the Ghost Mode feature to keep their location private and to avoid sharing content that might be harmful or embarrassing if screenshot by others.
   • Instagram and Twitter: These platforms can serve as powerful tools for student-athletes. Recruiters often search for talent on Twitter and Instagram, making it crucial for student-athletes to maintain professional and responsible online profiles. They should highlight their sports achievements, training routines, and academic accomplishments while avoiding personal information that could jeopardize their safety.

Benefits of Social Media for Student-Athletes

Social media can be a game-changer for student-athletes, especially in the military community where relocation is common. Platforms like Twitter and Instagram provide visibility to college recruiters, helping athletes showcase their skills even when they move to different schools. Here’s how military families can use social media to positively impact their children’s athletic careers:

• Build a Sports Portfolio: Encourage your teen to create a separate account that focuses solely on their sports career. They can share videos of games, stats, and accomplishments, positioning themselves as disciplined, hard-working athletes.
• Engage with Recruiters: Twitter, in particular, is a popular platform for college recruiters. Student-athletes should follow recruiters, share game highlights, and actively engage in sports-related conversations to increase visibility.
• Instagram: Teens can leverage Instagram’s visual nature to post highlights, training videos, and images of their sports journey. It is also a good idea to maintain a clean and professional profile, as recruiters often look at social media behavior when evaluating a potential recruit.

Cyberbullying: A Real Risk

Unfortunately, the rise of social media has also seen an increase in cyberbullying. As a parent, it’s crucial to talk to your teen about the importance of online kindness and the steps they should take if they are targeted:

• Teach them to block and report bullies on every platform they use.
• Monitor their social media activity for signs of cyberbullying, such as sudden changes in behavior or reluctance to engage with social media.
• Encourage open communication so that your teen feels comfortable sharing if they are experiencing bullying online.

Managing Your Teen’s Social Media Presence

While giving teens independence on social media is essential, parents should remain involved to ensure they navigate the digital space safely. Here are some practical tips for managing your teen’s online activity:

• Set up accounts together: Make sure you’re part of the initial account setup so you can implement privacy settings from the start.
• Regularly review followers and friends lists: Encourage your teen to only accept friend requests from people they know in real life.
• Install monitoring software if necessary, but also build trust by having ongoing conversations about their social media use.
• Limit screen time: Track how much time your teen spends online and ensure a healthy balance.

Social media offers military families many opportunities to connect, share, and thrive, but it also presents unique challenges, especially when it comes to safeguarding children and teens. By understanding the platforms they use, utilizing built-in safety features, and monitoring online behavior, military parents can help their kids enjoy the positive benefits of social media—while staying safe.

Encourage your student-athletes to use platforms like Twitter and Instagram professionally, help your younger kids navigate kid-friendly apps, and always keep an open dialogue to ensure social media remains a positive experience for the whole family.