{"id":220,"date":"2023-04-25T20:33:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T20:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/?p=220"},"modified":"2023-04-25T20:33:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T20:33:45","slug":"protecting-your-teen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/2023\/04\/25\/protecting-your-teen\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting your teen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are steps you can take to encourage the responsible use of social media and limit some of its negative effects. Consider these tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Set reasonable screen time limits.<\/strong> Talk to your teen about how to avoid letting social media interfere with his or her activities, sleep, meals or homework. Make sure your kid is still getting enough physical activity and face-to-face interactions. You can always use a screen time app that automatically sets limits, too, to prevent arguing. Also, encourage a bedtime routine that avoids electronic media use.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Monitor your teen&#8217;s devices and online presence.<\/strong> Always check what your child is consuming, whether that\u2019s scrolling through their tablet or phone or using a social media monitoring tool. Ensure that you familiarise yourself with the apps they use.&nbsp;You might aim to do so once a week or more.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Explain what&#8217;s not OK and encourage good behaviour.<\/strong> Discourage your teen from being mean, cyberbullying, spewing hate online, gossiping, spreading rumours, or damaging someone&#8217;s reputation. More so, talk to your teen about what is appropriate and safe to share on social media.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Encourage face-to-face interactions.<\/strong> It is imperative that instead of letting your kids stay glued to their devices, encourage them to maintain face-face interactions with their friends. This is particularly important for teens vulnerable to social anxiety disorder.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Talk about social media.<\/strong> Talk about your own social media habits. Ask your teen how he or she is using social media and how it makes him or her feel. Remind your teen that social media is full of unrealistic images and lifestyles. Let them know that not everything they see is as it seems. No one shows their problems on social media.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>First, determine if your child is ready to be on social media<\/strong>. Even if your child is old enough to join a social media platform, they might not be ready for it. As a parent, you have a good sense of their maturity level and how they interact with others like coaches and friends.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Talk to your kids.<\/strong> Always have an open and honest conversation with your children about what social media is and what it can be used for. Ask why they\u2019re interested in having an account on a particular platform and what they want to use it for.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are steps you can take to encourage the responsible use of social media and limit some of its negative effects. Consider these tips:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safespace.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}