Keeping An Eye On Your Child’s Blog

Posted by Judy on January 28, 2009 under Featured Articles

Blogs on a diverse range of subjects are all the rage these days both amongst adults and children. Blogs are further helped in their growth and popularity due to websites dealing with social networking such as MySpace. A large variety of choices are available to Internet users in this regard. They can avail any option that catches their fancy and can start writing about their interests in a matter of a few minutes. This blogging hype is even more encouraged by the popularity of existing blogs. More and more people are becoming interested in blogging themselves.

Children are no exception. A constant rise in the number of blogs available that cater to the intellectual and leisure needs of children is attracting them to create blogs of their own. The general trend in blogs created by children is to increase their social sphere or to stay in touch with their friends and family but there are some kids who are smarter than average and realize the money-making potential of blogs. No doubt there is a lot children can learn from blogging but blogging can also be risky at time for them. This calls for some vigilant monitoring on the part of parents so as to ensure their child stays out of trouble. This article is a collection of advice for parents about how to monitor their child’s blog.

Detailed Discussion About Internet Behavior with Children

The moment a child shows an interest in creating a blog, parents should sit him down and have a talk about what they expect from him viz-a-viz the usage of his blog. A frank discussion about the do’s and dont’s of responsible Internet usage should be discussed and made clear to the child. He should also be told why some things can be risky so he doesn’t rebel against any rules set by parents. There is no doubt that certain dangers exist in the use of Internet specially for children but these can be eliminated if parents are careful to communicate them to their children in an honest manner. Therefore, it is important that parents themselves are well informed about all these dangers and how to steer clear of them.

It is imperative that parents be involved in the entire process of their child’s blog, right from the idea of starting one to the actual posts put up by the child. Merely knowing the child wants to start a blog is not enough. Why the child wants to start a blog is also a very important question parents should seek an answer to. Knowing this could help in setting certain guidelines and rules that the child msut follow while blogging. A child, for instance may want to start a blog for the purpose of social networking. Now this can be very risky and parents should inform their child about the dangers involved. Rules should be set down for the content and information teh child decides to disclose to readers. Full name, address, telephone numbers are a complete no-no. Any other information that may lead readers to identify the child should also be prohibited.

Checking The Blog Regularly

Parents must not stop at just discussing the child’s interest in blogging and laying down certain rules for him to follow. A regular monitoring of the blog should be done to ake sure the child is adhering to the rules set by you. One effective way of doing this is to review the blog periodically without telling the child the exact date that the review would take place. In this way, the child won’t get the chance to delete any questionable material just before the review and put it back again soon as the review is over. One must not underestimate children nowadays as they would find a way of hiding the posts that break the rules set by you and put up appropriate blog content during the period of the review. This would undermine the whole process of checking the blog.

Keeping A Check On Blogs Favored By Your Child

Not only should parents keep an eye on their child’s blog but also know the blogs he visits regularly and monitor these too. Sometimes children find blogs that offer information that is unsuitable for them and can even be dangerous. This makes monitoring a child’s favorite blogs very important. A large number of blogs give access to readers to contact the blogger. This is done mostly through comments that visitors leave on the posts. The visitors may reveal their identity and leave contact information for the blogger. Vigilant parents who keep a check on the blogs that their children visit frequently are in a better position to ensure their child does not behave in an inappropriate manner or put himself at risk unintentionally. Parents who remain aware