Instagram is a popular way for secondary school students to connect with their friends. With the new school year in full swing, how can you help your children understand what they should share, what they shouldn’t post, and how to resist peer pressure on Instagram? And it’s not just Instagram: which other popular platforms do you need to know about so that you can parent effectively?
Instagram gave the world the word ‘Instafamous’ after bloggers like Sophie Hannah Richardson and Iskra Lawrence became famous as a result of being followed by tens of thousands of users on the social media platform. Its focus on the pictures and the filters you can use, and the ideal lifestyles they represent, has been accused of creating a culture of narcissism, self-obsession and even anger.
Since it was launched in 2010, Instagram has ‘eaten the world’, with more than 700 million active monthly users and the scalp of its rival Snapchat on its belt. Its successful imitation of many of the most popular features of its new slightly younger rival has been held responsible for the collapse in Snapchat’s share price.
Also worth mentioning is that Instagram is backed by the financial muscle and digital marketing tricks of Facebook, which also owns WhatsApp. It is not surprising then if your kids aren’t already ‘Instagrammers’, they will probably soon want to be as the new school year gets under way.
Public or private profile?
Before any talks about what kind of pictures your kids should share on Instagram, one of the most important things that you ought to talk to them about is the information they put on their profile for all to see. Your children should avoid anything like their real name, phone number or age to be displayed that could encourage someone to find them offline and try to contact them directly.
Secondly, they need to think about the kind of profile they have, because this will ultimately guide the pictures and videos they share.
On Instagram, profiles can be set as public or private. On public profiles, unsurprisingly, anything that your kids post, share or like can be seen by anyone on the platform. Conversely, private profiles can be seen only by followers who first send a follower request for your child to approve, after which they can see their profile and posts. The key point here is that the default option is public and your kids need to select the private option that is on the app if that’s what they want.
Although, perhaps they don’t need to choose. Many of the more tech savvy young users of the app have separate public and private profiles, using the latter to publish pictures that aren’t for public consumption. They then have to be careful switching between the two accounts so they don’t end up mixing the two up.
To tag or not to tag?
Whatever the type of profile your kids have on Instagram, they will probably want to tag the pictures they post with the location of where they took them because it is a great way to build an online identity – and more importantly look cool to their friends!
However, ‘geotagging’, as it is called, has been described by some critics as a stalker’s charter because the caption can tell anyone who can see their post exactly where they are. The good news is that your teens – perhaps with your encouragement – can go into the settings of their phone and disable geotagging for good.
Think about your followers:
Instagram is all about popularity. Unfortunately so, but the truth.. The temptation is for your kids not to check who’s following them, in pursuit of the largest number of followers they can get.
If you regularly run through the list of their followers with your children, and encourage them to ask themselves questions like ‘who is this person and why are they following me?’, then it may help them make better choices as to what they share online.
It won’t make you popular, but if the answers aren’t clear or there is a big age gap then you can encourage your son or daughter to block them. If they block someone, then the person will no longer be able to see your child’s profile, posts and story on Instagram. This is good to know. If they have a private profile, then your teens can remove the follower without their knowledge.
What other people post matters as well…
Your kids can manage what they see on their feed and this often means managing the people they themselves follow. If someone they follow keeps posting pictures, videos or comments that they find upsetting then they can easily block these users. If they don’t want to lose them as a follower, unfollow them if they don’t care, or even report a post as inappropriate or offensive by clicking the icons on their profile page. Any comments they have posted can be deleted.
Your kids can also use what’s called keyword moderation to avoid seeing any comments that include words that are offensive or inappropriate. They can then supply their own list of words they dislike, or use a list already provided.
What about Instagram Stories?
After the success of the Snapchat’s Story feature with its young users, Instagram introduced its own Stories. Just like with Snapchat, your children’s story can be either a photo or video that they upload on to their profile and which disappears after 24 hours. No one can publicly comment on it. Only followers can send a private message – and you can even decide who is allowed to send you a message.
The temptation for many teenagers is to use a feature like this to post some rather risqué pictures or videos. That is a temptation that they should not give in to – and this is a very important chat parents need to have with their kids.
After all, the moment they post a picture or video, they have lost control of it. It is all too easy for one of their followers to take a screenshot of something your child thought would just disappear.
How to resist peer pressure and stay protected
The desire to become Instafamous can put enormous pressure on your children to do things they wouldn’t normally do – and then post them online. It also puts pressure on parents who are worried about what universities and employers may think about their teenagers’ digital footprint in the future.
For extra reassurance when you can’t be around, it can be beneficial to use software that will help parents guide their kids’ activity online. Subscription services like Kaspersky Security Cloud, for example, offer adaptive protection so that parents can monitor usage and what their kids are searching for whether they are at home, out with their friends or even on holiday.
The best way to beat every parent’s nightmare is be around your kids when they are online so you see what they are up to. By taking an interest in what they are doing, even if you rarely use social media yourself, will allow you to be there for them if they need someone to talk to.