Cyber-Reputation: What Does it Mean For Your Child?

It’s really important to talk to your child, tween or teen so they fully understand what their cyber-reputation is and what they can do to keep it positive so that it doesn’t come back to haunt them later.  And because it’s simply the right way to behave online and offline.

• The Cyberworld is Not Private 

Explain to your child how easy and quickly things can spread and go viral online, from person to person and beyond.  Even if a message or image  sent confidentially can be shared or a screen shot can easily be taken of it. Children, tweens or teens should never post things online which they don’t want other people to see.  Even when they hit the delete button, it’s never truly deleted especially if someone has already captured an image of it.

• Passwords

  

  Teach your child how to create strong and different passwords for every account that they use online. This means using numbers, characters in their password and avoid using passwords that could be thought of easily such as their dog’s name.  Continually remind them that they should never share their passwords, even with friends.  A friend today, can be gone tomorrow.

• Respect

  Teach your child, tween or teen that there is a real, living, breathing person with feelings at the other end of their post and on the other side of that screen.  Anonymity and the ability to share things with a large audience makes it all to easy to post things to people they probably would never say to the person’s face.  Remind your child to treat people as they’d like to be treated. If they wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, they shouldn’t post it online.  Teach them to hit the pause button and think, what if someone said the same thing to me.  Keep online posts positive.

• Think Before Posting

  

  Think Before Posting.  Because your child, tween or teen is posting behind a screen and can’t see the facial expression of the person at the other end of the post, they really need to think about the impact of the post. Is it positive, is it kind, or is it hurtful, mocking or mean?  Could it be cyberbullying?  Your child, tween or teen may think they’re just joking around when the person at the other end takes their comments very seriously and can be really hurt.  Also, because posts often go to a wider audience and don’t remain between two people, the hurt can feel much more devastating.

• Create a Positive Cyber-Reputation 

  The day your child  goes online, teach them that they are creating an online reputation and their own personal brand for the world to see.  At the moment it may not seem important, but down the road when they may be looking at colleges or looking for a job, their digital footprint will matter.  Encourage your child, tween or teen to create a positive online presence and digital footprint. They don’t want a post that they wrote impulsively, without thinking today to haunt them down the road later.