BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Social media can help teens with healthy development and provide a way to connect with friends and family. But it also comes with risks.
It’s critically important to be aware of how your teens use these platforms and the type of content they see.
“We have elementary school students with phones. Parents must monitor. They must do phone checks,” said Raleigh County Schools Director of Pupil Services Theresa Lewis. “And parents really need to be aware of social media apps that have backdoors to get around things and can be hidden.”
According to Lewis, it is very concerning as an educator that students can go to YouTube to search an innocent site and end up on something bad in no time flat.
“These people targeting our children are smart, way smarter than any of us,” the director of pupil services said. “You think your child is playing in a game or chatting with somebody on Snapchat that’s their age, and they might not be.”
It’s up to parents to put safeguards in place so their children do not see or get involved in dangerous things.
“The monitoring, supervision, and at nighttime, parents need to take the phones with them,” said Lewis. “Their teens need to be in bed (not up at all hours) because idle hands can be the work of the devil sometimes.”
