Improvements To Facebook Privacy Settings Are No Substitute For Parental Monitoring

Online, August 30, 2011 (Newswire.com) - With the recent uproar over online security, Facebook announced new privacy settings last week. These improvements are intended to make it safer to share posts, photos, tags and other content with only the people you deem appropriate. While Facebook should be commended for working to maintain the privacy of their customers, TrueCare wants to remind parents that there is no surrogate for your direct involvement in a child's online presence.

TrueCare encourages parents to fully understand the settings of all social media sites and stay up-to-date on any changes. While settings can sometimes be difficult to find and/or hard to navigate, understanding the settings can save parents time and heartache down the road. Testing settings from other computers is encouraged to ensure the settings work the way you want them to.

Additionally, parents must have a good sense about what's going on in their kids' online worlds and keep the lines of communication open. Since Facebooking has become a daily routine for kids, it needs to be part of the daily conversation. The more open parents are with their kids and facilitate a safe and non-judgmental environment for conversation, they are more likely to communicate an issue.

While the idea of openness and parenting sometimes seem like they shouldn't go together, imagine this: do you want to talk about things at the dining room table in a calm atmosphere or after something forces the issue?

"Parents cannot expect improvements in privacy and security to protect their kids 100%," said Dave Barker, VP at TrueCare. "They need to stay involved in what their kids are doing online - learn who their friends are, see what they post, and manage how many hours per day they spend on Facebook and other social networking sites."

TrueCare offers tools and resources to help parents protect and educate children on the dangers frequently associated with social media by providing a 24/7 email alert system for harmful communications authored by or involving children.