At the moment, she doesn’t ask her children’s permission, and the children are excited to feature in online images, but Zoe can anticipate a time when her soon-to-be-teen might not think being on her Mum’s social media accounts is cool!
How sharenting can go wrong
That’s not to say there haven’t been times when “sharenting” has gone a bit too far. Once, Zoe entered a competition to find Britain’s untidiest bedroom, using a photo of her daughter. “I didn’t check the terms and conditions, and the photo ended up on the front page of the local paper,” confesses Zoe. “I felt extremely guilty, and it did teach me to always check what rights you allow other people when you’re sharing images.”
At 12 and 10, Zoe’s two eldest children are beginning to explore the Internet, and share their own images. “Morris has just started high school, and is using Instagram, so I follow his account and check comments every now and then,” says Zoe. “But with Leon, who’s 11, we have a rule of no social media before high school.”
Using the ‘granny rule’ to share safely
Before sharing images, Zoe advises the children to consider how would Granny or their teacher feel about them if they saw that picture? “I hope it teaches them to think twice before posting.”
At home, Internet access is strictly monitored. The children are limited to 30 minutes at a time online, and prioritise school work over YouTube or computer games. The children are told not to delete their Internet history, so their parents can check what has been accessed.
Protecting their curiosity
“We recently found that sexual intercourse had been put into a search engine, which was a concern,” says Zoe. “Of course, it’s understandable that boys are curious about sex, but the Internet is a dangerous place to look for answers. We had a very open chat about how the sex they might see on the Internet is not real life.”
After this conversation, Zoe and her husband extended the family’s Internet rules to say that they trust the boys to use their computer time responsibility, but that inappropriate behavior would result in a loss of computer access for a period of time.
Zoe admits she worries that this close monitoring will be harder as the boys get older and more computer savvy. “Overall, I think the lesson we’re trying to teach them is if they are responsible, they will receive more privileges and more trust,” she says.
