Parents' ally on social media: doctors

Parents have a new ally in trying to keep their children safe in cyberspace and on social media platforms: The pediatrician.

A recent clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics stresses the role of kids’ physicians in helping parents be aware of and set limits for technology that young people use, such as texting, Facebook and Twitter, as well as gaming and video sites.

“Pediatricians are in a unique position to help families understand these sites and to encourage healthy use and urge parents to monitor for potential problems with cyberbullying, ‘Facebook depression,’ sexting, and exposure to inappropriate content,” according to the report, called “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families.”

The academy wants parents to maintain an open dialogue with kids to make sure that time spent on computers and gadgets isn’t harmful and doesn’t get in the way of family time.

Start the discussion

“We just want to educate parents about the importance of them having a very open and transparent discussion” with kids, said Dr. Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, a pediatrician in Chapel Hill, N.C., who co-wrote the academy’s report. “And I think even in the tween years, this has to be happening because more and more, pop culture is percolating down to tweens.”

Dr. Hatim Omar, a pediatrics professor at the University of Kentucky, said teens can be persuaded by what they see on social media sites or elsewhere online to try risky behavior, such as inhalant use or the choking game (another way to get high).

“They do not develop abstract thinking until about age 17, 18, which means they cannot foresee what something leads to,” said Omar, chief of the adolescent medicine division. “The mantra basically is ‘it’s not going to happen to me,’ so they will do these things because everybody else is.

“It’s a lot easier if we start talking to parents when their kids are 8, 9, 10,” Omar said. “That way, they can start setting standards or rules before it’s too late.”

There also needs to be discussion about being “responsible digital citizens — not to sext, not to cyberbully, not to post inappropriately,” Clarke-Pearson said.

Cyberbullying — a term for bullying online — has been blamed for some teen suicides. And “there are 11-year-old girls posting pictures of themselves on a Facebook page in a little sexy bra and panty thing during their sleepover and then of course, it goes viral,” she said.

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