The 2-Minute Social Media Check

One thing I dread about future parenting is the challenge of navigating technology with my kids. Right now, my daughter Molly is only four, and I’m under the delusion that I don’t have to worry about this topic for at least 15 more years. This topic can be so overwhelming, but I just left a conference where I heard some incredibly practical advice from a speaker named Brian Housman (author of Tech Savvy Parenting and founder of 360Family.org).

For the purpose of keeping this article short, I will make several assumptions. I will assume that you are aware of why you need to have access to your kid’s social media. And, I will assume that you understand this 2-minute check is only one piece of a much larger puzzle that protects your kids digitally.

It is our job as a parent to let our kids interact with their world and set appropriate boundaries. Hopefully, this article will give you an easy bit-sized task to begin working through this overwhelming responsibility. Even though your child may spend hours upon hours on their new phone, it only takes 2 minutes to take a huge step to monitor their activity. Here are some of Brian’s suggestions that I have packaged into a 3-step method.

Step 1: Check at Random

Ask your kids one random time a week to look at their phone. Do this at random so that your kids don’t just learn to delete inappropriate content at a given time.

Step 2: Scroll Through Social Media Together

Have your kids sit down and scroll through their social media with you. Brian suggests to never do this privately. Their phone and social media is a part of their identity. You do this with them! Doing this without them is invading their privacy and creepy. This is an opportunity to guide your kids in their decisions, not to just police their browsing history.

Step 3: Ask 2 Questions

As you scroll through the social media thread, ask two questions about what you see. It doesn’t matter what these questions are, just engage with what you are seeing. This communicates to your kids that you are actively involved with their life both in person and digitally. You aren’t looking for past history, but current content that might pop up. This teaches your kids not to hide their history, but to maintain a healthy thread. Some suggested questions are: How do you know this person? Tell me about this page? What is this person talking about? Why do you think your seeing some of these advertisements?

No matter the age of your kids, you can begin this process now and help start building wise and healthy digital boundaries. I loved this advice because it wasn't overwhelming and left me thinking, "Oh that's simple, I could totally do that."

For more resources on parenting, visit Pastor Luke’s blog at www.thepastorparent.com.