Family, Youth and Community Sciences News

Research-based information, resources, and tips for families, consumers, and educators; provided by the faculty of the University of Florida/IFAS Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences.

10 Tips for Setting Up Your Teens’ Personal Space Internet Web sites

Rose Barnett, Ph.D., Asst. Professor, Youth Development & Public Policy

Since your kids will have a lot more time to be on the computer this summer, and possibly  without as much parental monitoring, it is important to plan ahead to make their personal space sites safe. This is particularly important if you have adolescents who are using their personal space sites to communicate with friends they already have or  possibly with trying to meet new people on-line. As the parent of two teens, I have personally found that monitoring online communications are more difficult than offline.

Establishing some virtual parenting guidelines will let your kids know that you are involved in every aspect of their daily lives, including their media activities, even while you are at work. It is critical that you do this up front of their personal space design, or at least before they get real active in any exchanges on it. At a minimum, a parent needs to sit down with their adolescent to have a talk with them about the risks involved. Some guidelines about who they should talk with on-line are especially important to stress, since some people navigating through sites might not be who they say they are. Predator proofing is a key component of building any safe personal space site for teens. I’d like to share with you some of what I have found works. Here’s a list of:

10 Summer Tips for Parental Monitoring of Teens’ Personal Space Internet Web sites

  1. Talk to your kids about personal space sites. Keep the dialogue open and friendly.
  2. Create your own so you understand how they work and how others gain access to them.
  3. Show your kids your site and ask them to show you theirs.
  4. Give them some notice so they don’t feel you are trying to invade their space or control them.
  5. Encourage them to use a pen name rather than their real name if the site allows it.
  6. Make sure your home address and phone numbers are not in their personal profile.
  7. Look at the photos on the site and make sure that they don’t have content that can identify your teen to a stranger.
  8. Remove any details that identify your teen before they launch their site.
  9. Set the page to private to limit access.
  10. Teach them that whatever they put up there is public, not private, information.

Have a safe virtual summer!