As a parent, you want to protect your children from harm, but with the internet and social media, that can be a daunting task. As a parent, you are probably aware of the different social media platforms, such as Instagram. Instagram is one platform that parents should be especially concerned about, as it can be a hotbed for cyberbullying and other harmful behavior.
Luckily, there are steps you can take to help keep your kids safe on Instagram. In this post, we’ll discuss some of those steps and provide helpful resources for further reading. Keep reading to learn more!
Set Their Profile to Private
The very first thing that you are going to want to do is to set your child’s Instagram profile to private. What does this mean? This means that when your child’s Instagram account is set to public, literally anyone can see the content that they are posting.
This is an obvious concern for risk, so to avoid completely random strangers being able to see their feed, make sure the profile is set to private.
Try a Spy App
There is an option that you could try if you want to be on the extra-safe side, and that is to try spy apps for Instagram. Once these apps are installed, they will run silently in the background without your child even being aware.
Why would you want to try this sort of app? It will allow you to see the direct messages your child is sending and receiving, as well as any links or media that have been exchanged. More than this, most have a GPS tracking feature, so you can rest assured knowing that your child is safe where they should be.
Remove Suspicious Followers
The next thing that you should do is to remove suspicious followers from your child’s Followers list. Instagram has a rumored 2 billion monthly active users, and statistics and studies show that 500 million Instagram users interact with Instagram Stories. That being said, it is pretty likely that your child can end up communicating with someone suspicious.
Remember, if someone is following your child on Instagram, they can see their posts. You should have a good grasp over who your friends are, and should be able to gauge how old the person looks who is following your child.
A great idea is to go through your child’s follower list with your child to confirm who is who, so at least they feel involved and as if they have some control.
Follow Your Child on Instagram
If you are concerned about being too invasive in your child’s life, you could take a subtler approach, and that’s to follow them on Instagram. You don’t have to worry, this is completely normal.
The benefit of following your child is that you can see the type of content that they post, who likes the content, and how often they’re using the app. This way you can still monitor what they are doing and take the appropriate steps, but it won’t feel like you are being too restrictive.
Make Sure Your Child Doesn’t Have a Finsta Account
Another thing that you should consider doing is checking whether or not your child has a finsta or rinsta account. If you’re confused, that’s okay. A finsta account is a fake Instagram account, whereas a rinsta is a real Instagram account.
Why would your child have a finsta account? So that they can post images that are safe and parent-friendly, whereas the rinsta account is the account that only their friends have access to.
Check the Search History
As great as Instagram is, unfortunately, it’s almost like a search engine, such as Google, in a way. What this means is that they have access to almost any sort of image, and could be exposed to any number of things.
If you don’t want your child to be exposed to or influenced by specific content, then you should check their search history to see what they have been searching for on Instagram.
Apply Time Rules
Finally, the last thing that you should do is to apply time rules to using Instagram, or any social media. There is a lot of research that shows that social media could hurt the development of children.
When applying time rules, try to be practical and reasonable; for example, only giving your child 15 minutes is unreasonable and will cause your child to resent your parenting and authority, and therefore not respect your wishes, which is the opposite of what you are trying to achieve.
