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A few years ago, my son wanted to have a party for his graduation. So, what does any savvy teen do? He creates an event evite on his social network!
He was smart enough to set the party’s privacy settings, however he set them so “friends of friends” could see the event (just in case he was missing someone). Well, since he invited me, my friends could see the party. Before I even saw the invite a co-worker called to let me know that she could see my son’s phone number.
Well, needless to say, this lesson has now become part of “Social Networking 101” in my house and my kids must master this skill before being allowed on social networking sites. And luckily for me, I now have McAfee Family Protection on the computer so they can no longer attempt to get around this rule on the home computers. If they try, I will get a text message letting me know the attempt was made and was blocked.
I know that I am not alone in this particular problem because I saw a story online this weekend about the very same thing happening in Germany. However, the family involved had very different results. 15,000 people rsvp’d to a girl’s 16th birthday when she accidently forgot to set the privacy settings on the event and the party was open to all of Facebook to see! They had to take action when 1500 people showed up at their home – they cancelled the party, informed the police and hired security.
So why not have a chat with your teen tonight? With graduations and end of the school year parties happening now, remind them to keep those parties private on social networks. Here is the perfect news story to illustrate the point. 1500 people – that is a lot of chips!
Stay safe out there!
Tracy
@McAfeeCyberMom on Facebook
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Tags: how to talk to teens, kids online behavior, netiquette, social networking