This is an actual question. I don't know the answer and have been searching posts to see if someone else has any answers.
I've read some nice blogs about the importance of breastfeeding, safe words and teaching body safety, the WHOLE discussion on vaccinations, but nothing I've found yet about how to protect our children here, on Steemit. Do we even need to worry about their safety? Is everyone on Steemit good? Altruistic? I think it is at best naive and at worst dangerous to assume everyone in this arena is safe for my children to interact with.
So what do you think? I have four children, two of whom are Steemers already. What does Steemit look like for our kids? How do I, as a responsible parent, encourage them to be here and contribute while protecting them?
If you are going to have them on here your definitely need to monitor everything they do. I flagged someone one day for asking to meet one of the children of steemit. It was really awkward and weird. I agree with @misfortunecookie that they should be outside playing for hours every day. But if they can use the platform and learn then maybe its okay for a little bit once and a while to learn other aspects of the world.
It may be altruistic and good right now, but it can't stay like that forever.
Age restricted tags and topics come to mind at first, but does that really matter? Your children have access to the internet. If they are curious about anything at all, they can find it.
Thanks for replying. The internet is frightening for sure and my husband and I take great pains to ensure their safety, however like all things in life, we have to weigh being cautious with living and experiencing things. Are there already age restricted tags and topics here on Steemit? That's the kind of thing I was hoping to find. Thanks again, happy Steeming!
"we have to weigh being cautious with living and experiencing things".
I hoped you would say that. That is exactly how I think about topics like these as well.
To me it makes sense that parents try to prepare their children for life so that they can transition (kinda) smoothly from you taking care of them to taking care of themselves.
I have not seen anything age restrictid yet, so I doubt that it's already here.
Encourage them to get off the computer and go outside and play, like kids should do to optimize their natural development. If they wish to use social media, demand that you know their passwords until you are comfortable with them being preyed on.
Sorry, but that's just the reality of the internet. Children will encounter predators. You must have already given them their own phones and private phone numbers so that they could signed up for steemit to begin with. This always blows my mind. Everyone is in debt, but their kids have got to have a smart phone and a plan. Only the most spoiled children had their own personal land line when I was growing up.
Do the phones have data plans too? Even if they don't, they're plugged into the home wifi and doing whatever they want on the internet, unless you have methods to monitor their use on those devices. How are you protecting them from every other space on the internet where they could be preyed upon?
Well, this is a little more judgy than I was expecting, but I'll answer some of your questions anyway... their phones are in my possession unless they will need to contact me and they don't have data plans. They also spend most of their time outside. I have their passwords and am always nearby when they are on the computer, monitoring their content. My question about Steemit was more about the platform; will naked pictures just pop into my daughter's feed or is there a setting somewhere that will monitor adult content..? Thanks for replying and reading and I hope the children in your care are as well taken care of as mine are.
I'm sorry, I can be rough around the edges. It did come off as a bit harsh. I just believe that ultimately it's the parents' responsibility to monitor the activity of their children on the internet, and be technically literate enough to ensure their safety and control what content they're exposed to. You seem to do that. You are in the minority, unfortunately (based on the quality of the comments posted on the general internet, it seems to be a lot of children... Or really stupid adults. I can't tell.)
There are no parental controls on steemit, but you have already granted your children steemit accounts. Why have you not waited until such a feature is implemented before giving them access to such a community? There are plenty of forums for your children to interact with others that are not the wild-west.
I do hope the platform eventually includes parental controls, but even with them, your children will see things and read things that you do not want them to, and interact with people you would rather them not.
Statistically, 1% or more of humans are psychopaths. That "kid" they're talking to in some kid-friendly part of the internet might not be a kid. There's no way to keep them completely safe, but that has always been the nature of life. Thanks for being a responsible parent.
Thank you for replying, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. My kids just finished the school year so we got all caught up in kindergarten graduation and everything else.
I completely agree that it is our responsibility to monitor our children's activities online. My husband was really the one who helped our kids sign up and so I was checking to see if I had missed anything that may help us keep our kids safe. There isn't, so now that I know, I'll be even more vigilant.
Thanks for your kind words, I do try to be responsible.
Hope you and yours are happy and healthy.
b.