How to Supervise Your Child’s Blog

Adults are not the only ones enjoying the benefits of blogging. Young children are also lured to this hobby due to the increasing popularity of social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace. Adults and children alike who are frequent Internet users now have diverse options in creating blogs. Children maintain these for reasons like connecting with friends all over the world. Some are even sharp enough to recognize the possibility of making profit through blogging. There are benefits a child can acquire from maintaining a blog, but parents must also realize the risks involved in such an endeavor. Hence, parents should know how to supervise the online journal of their child and also his exposure to other websites.

Talk about the expectations in blogging

Parents should discuss with their child the expectations when making a blog. There should be open communication about responsible Internet usage. This discussion will be the basis of the behavior of the child when he goes online. Dangerous and offensive content is widespread in the Internet world, and if the child is unaware of this he can be harmed by such. Therefore it is best that parents and children talk about these to ensure safety.

Before starting a blog parents must first understand the reasons for the creation of such. This is done to set guidelines for blogging. For instance, the child may want to interact with other people through the blog, but she might not know the potential danger of disclosing personal information. Thus, the parent should warn the child of the risks of providing information like residence address and contact information on the site. Giving away information used to locate or identify the youngster must also be considered.

Review the child’s blog on a regular basis

Visiting the blog ensures that he is complying with the established rules. Parents can review it as frequently as possible, but they must not inform the child when the reviews will occur. This prevents the child from modifying the content of the blog by removing unfavorable posts during the time of review and then returning the original content after the review is over. Parents should know that it’s easy to make changes by merely saving the files and putting appropriate entries during the review.

Monitor the blogs your child visits

It’s also imperative that parents monitor the blogs the child visits. Parents should be aware of what the child is reading, as some content can pose danger to them. This is because blogs allow readers to communicate with the blogger through the comments section. Visitors can leave comments to which the blogger can respond. In such cases the child may leave comments that contain personal information. The owner is not the only one who has access to these comments since other visitors can read them as well. Parents who oftentimes visit the blogs their child frequents can monitor the behavior of the child as well as check to see if the latter is not providing information, thus putting his life at risk.