Safety Tips for Parents with Teens on Facebook and Instagram

Facebook wants everyone to feel safe from bullying, harassment, scams, inappropriate content and other cyber dangers when using Facebook and its family of apps. They work with external experts, including a Safety Advisory Board, and gather feedback from the community to develop policies, tools and resources to keep users safe.

Facebook designed many of their features to remind young people to be aware of who they’re sharing information with, to only accept friend requests from people they know, and to know how to protect themselves online. In South Africa they work with partners like Digify Africa who they launched Ilizwe Lam with in 2018. This is a programme aimed at training teens on the importance of Internet safety.

Parents also have a critical role to play in educating teenagers about online safety. Here are a few tips from Facebook on engaging with youth and discussing their online safety.

1. Under 13s are not allowed on Facebook or Instagram. Facebook and Instagram require everyone to be 13 years old before they can create an account (in some countries, this age limit may be higher dependent on local laws), parents are encouraged to have these conversations with their teens.

2. Let your teenager know that the same rules apply online as offline. Your teenager can avoid most potential dangers and concerns online by simply stopping to think before they submit a post or accepting a friend request. Teach them to think before they engage with strangers online.

3. Engage early. Research shows that many children as young as six have access to smartphones or tablets. Talk to them about technology, before they are on social media.

4. Help them to check and manage their privacy settings. Once your teen has set up a social media account, they can use Facebook privacy settings to control who can friend them, who can see their posts, and if they share details such as their location by default. This can help them to control their exposure to bullying, harassment and other potential concerns.

5. Show them the tools they can use to filter content and people from their feeds. Instagram offers many flexible tools to keep teens safe online – keep them informed about the options. There is keyword filtering, bullying filtering and sensitivity screens, for example. People can also restrict unwanted interactions on their profiles and easily report accounts, comments and posts for bullying.