PORT TOWNSEND — Parents have an opportunity to learn how to supervise their children’s use of social networking sites at a meeting tonight.
“Parents should always know what their kids are doing on Facebook,” said Fernando Fonseca, who is conducting the program.
“Kids should understand to know that what they do online is an extension of their own lives and who they are, and they need to use common sense in deciding what to post.”
Free meeting
The free meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Blue Heron Middle School, 3939 San Juan Ave., Port Townsend.
Fonseca, who is from Portugal, runs an international social networking consulting firm and lives part time in Port Townsend with his girlfriend, Donna Winter, and her two school-age children.
Fonseca said social networking sites are tremendous resources for children and provide avenues for learning and sharing, promoting interaction with people around the world.
For instance, a student who is doing a report on a foreign country can have direct access to people who live there.
Facebook is also a good way to maintain contacts with friends and relatives, Fonseca said.
On the other hand, he warned, it can be a dangerous place for children to wander around in unsupervised.
Facebook requires that everyone who signs on is at least 13 years of age but, he said, some parents help children younger than 13 sign up.
Fonseca doesn’t fault parents for this practice but says parents should then supervise their kids’ online activities.
Parental supervision
One step is to make sure that parents know all of the sites their children visit regularly and have all the passwords used to access those sites.
Parents also should be connected to their children’s email activity and set up a forwarding system so they will get a copy of every email the child sends or receives, he said.
Parents should also become “friends” with their children and log on regularly in order to see what they are posting.
If they know the parents are watching, they may be more cautious about their online activity and not post material that could be damaging or embarrassing, Fonseca said.
It stays online
“People think that if they delete something they have posted, it goes away,” he said.
“But everything you have posted online still exists somewhere.”
Parents also need to learn how to adjust Facebook’s privacy settings and make sure their children’s pages can’t be viewed by the public at large, he said.
Fonseca calls Facebook’s privacy settings adjustment a “maze.”
As social networking is an extension of real life, Fonseca suggests that parenting skills in the real world can be used online.
For instance, parents should vet each one of their kids’ Facebook friends and determine how the connection occurs.
‘Degree of separation’
“Parents need to make sure that their kids know everyone who they have friended on Facebook,” Fonseca said.
“It’s important for parent to understand the ‘degree of separation’ for each friend and how that friendship started.”
With all these caveats, Fonseca feels that social media is an important tool for children and one that can improve good parenting skills.
“Parents can use social media to observe their kids’ behavior, but it can also be used to get closer to them,” he said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
