A while ago, we posted an article about cyber safety for kids. Internet and social media are becoming part of our life, teaching children how to avoid negative influence is important, however, it is more important to help kids build a positive digital environment for themselves, and leverage the power of positive digital profiles to gain advantage to colleges and employments.
Today we have a guest sharing tips on helping kids build positive digital profiles. Tiffany Sunday is a strategist, entrepreneur, and professional speaker. She just published the book You Posted What!?, which is about helping kids create positive digital profiles with social media tools. Here is what Tiffany shared with us:
Why Your Child’s Digital Profile Matters
Our teens’ are the first fully intergraded social media generation. They do not know a world without the Internet and cannot image a life without Instagram or Snapchat. Most teens roll their eyes and say “OMG” when you talk about how our generation passed paper notes in school.
Every event, milestone, break-up, fight, dinner and birthday party has been posted on the Internet either by themselves, family members or friends. Their digital biography is stored on the Internet, and anything you ever wanted to know about your teen is stored online.
Social media networks have replaced the shopping malls of 80s and 90s as the primary place for teens to hang out and visit with friends. When they are online, teens feel empowered and have the freedom to speak their minds. With this freedom comes responsibility and many teens are learning that a wrong click or post can have significant consequences.
Private schools and colleges review social media profiles to search for new students or to screen applicants. Tech savvy teens are using social media and the Internet to build positive digital profiles to gain an advantage for securing college placement and employment.
Students can enhance their digital profiles by earning educational badges or certificates from websites such as Khan Academy or Pathbrite. Khan Academy is a free educational website that enables students to improve their proficiency in a specific area such as fractions or algebra and/or learn ahead of their classmates. Each student creates a profile and works through a subject checklist based on their skill level. Tutors can be added to the student’s profile.
Pathbrite is for older teens seeking to explore different career options. Students create different portfolios based on their interest, talent and skill. Pathbrite also provides mentors that offer guidance on which classes to take and how to plan for the future.
Tips for Helping Your Child Develop a Positive Digital Profile:
- Avoid using cute funny names for social media networks. These names will appear when recruiters are screening your teen’s school or employment application.
- Remind your teen that their postings and comments can be seen by high school administrators, college recruiters and, later by employers. The Internet has a very, long memory.
- Help your teen develop good Internet safety habits such as using multiple passwords and never posting photos of their house address or license plate.
- Earn educational badges and certificates from websites such as Khan Academy and Pathbrite.
- Create profiles on Pathbrite, campus2careers and similar websites to receive mentorship and explore career opportunities.
Thanks Tiffany for these great tips. Have you worked with your kids on building social medial profiles that will help them in professional development? Would you like to share your tips? If you are interested in learning more on helping kids build positive social media profiles, you can check out Tiffany’s book. The link to the book is provided below.
If you would like to check it out or purchase it, please use the App Store link provided below. The cost is the same to you, but iGameMom gets a small percentage. Thanks for your support! Note: The link works for all countries.
