As education coordinator of the South Carolina Attorney General’s office, I travel all around the state talking to students, teachers, parents, teachers and community members about how to keep kids safe online. We’re also part of the the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is a nationwide task-force that basically goes after online predators or adults who are going to try and prey on kids using the internet.

Joe Ryan, Education Officer with the South Carolina Attorney General's Office shared these tips with us: 

Previously, I spent five years with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department here in Columbia, SC, three of those as a school resource officer. So I’ve also seen first hand a lot of the issues teenagers with social media on a day-to-day basis.

1. Learn how to talk with your kids about the Internet

The biggest thing we stress for parents is to establish an open line of communication with their kids. - Joe Ryan

It sounds simple, right? But the biggest thing we can stress for parents is to establish an open line of communication with their kids. As parents and as adults, we want them to feel comfortable coming to us even with personal topics or things they don’t think we’ll understand. We want to continually assure them that we are there to help them navigate through those situations.We also encourage parents to start these conversations at a younger age than they might think is necessary. That way, as they get older it doesn’t feel like an invasion of privacy or like you’re trying to control what they’re doing. Any insight we can get into their lives is going to be incredibly valuable as we move forward with trying to teach them how to manage these activities.

2. Work as a family to set internet rules

Take the time to sit down as a family and craft a set of rules. - Joe Ryan

I highly recommend that families sit down together and create their rules for Internet usage. Instead of just sitting down and creating a set of rules and expecting our kids to follow them without asking them any questions, take the time to sit down as a family and craft a set of rules. We can get input from them about what’s really important from their point of view, so maybe we can make some compromises to allow them to do some of the things they want to do but also stress the reasons we want them to avoid putting themselves in certain situations. At the same time, we should commit to following these rules in our own lives in order to be positive role models.

3. Explore technology together

Go beyond creating the rules around technology as a family and explore it together. - Joe Ryan

Building on the last tip, go beyond creating the rules around technology as a family to explore it together, too, whether it’s computers, smartphones, smart TVs, video game systems. That could mean something as simple as listening to a podcast as a family, playing games, or having own social media accounts we use to interact with each other on.It’s one thing to tell your child “You should do this” or “You shouldn’t do that,” but when they’re actually interacting with you on these platforms and seeing the way that you carry yourself, that makes a much greater impact and gives you a lot more credibility when you’re talking with them about these subjects.

4. Set boundaries for if/how kids interact online with people they don’t know

Make sure your kids understand the risks involved when they meet new people online. - Joe Ryan

One of the best ways to keep kids safe on the Internet is to make sure our kids understand the risks involved when they meet new people online. I think every day there’s a new app coming out that encourages people to make new friends online, and the growth of video games and online gaming specifically is starting to introduce kids at younger and younger ages to interacting with people online that they might not necessarily know. We want to make sure they understand what kind of information they should and shouldn’t be sharing with these people. After forming these relationships on multi-player games, kids may start to feel comfortable with these individuals and be tempted to give out more and more personal information. Stress that when they are they are playing a game online, they should limit conversation to the game that they’re playing. These people don’t need to know what school they go to or how old they are.

5. Educate yourself

Parents that aren't very tech-savvy may even feel intimidated by technology and social media. - Joe Ryan

When I give presentations, I always meet parents who feel like they’re not very tech-savvy and may even feel intimidated by technology and social media. They let that intimidation and that fear prevent them from ever even getting the knowledge—much less talking to kids about those subjects. We want to make sure parents realize that there are a ton of resources out there that you can use to continue to educate yourselves on how to keep kids safe online.

Obviously parents can get a lot of great information from SmartSocial.com and there are other resources they can use as well to learn more and more about this technology. Once they start to put those pieces together, it becomes increasingly easy to have these conversations with your kids. And you’d be surprised—no matter how much you (and they) think they know, once you take the time to teach yourself, you’ll have a lot to teach them, too.

About our guest blogger
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Joe Ryan, Education Officer, South Carolina Attorney General's Office
‍As Education Coordinator officer with the South Carolina Attorney General’s office, Joe Ryan travels the state talking with students, parents and community members about how to keep kids safe online. He also served for five years with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in Columbia, S.C., three of those as a School Resource Officer.