Photo from the Joe Social Media Inc. Facebook page.

By Curtis Galbraith

Social Media

Expert encourages parents to talk with their kids about social media

May 8, 2022 | 11:00 AM

Dozens of parents and kids in the Peace continue to get the message that social media is not as scary as people fear.

Joe Whitbread and Jo Phillips with Jo(e) Social Media recently held some school and parent sessions in Wembley, Donnelly, and Falher regarding social media.

Whitbread says their goal is “to get kids and adults on the same page.”

“While they are scary places, it’s really important to understand (that) they’re here for a while and we as parents need to guide our kids through the scary things they do.”

Whitbread says the best thing is for parents and kids to talk about their phones, as this is not how parents grew up.

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He adds it’s not so important to keep up with all the new apps as technology always changes, but rather with how kids are being raised in a digital world.

“The adult experience on social media is often negative. It’s why we have so much fear of putting our kids there.”

“We also have memories of reminisces of how we grew up and are certainly glad that is not documented.”

Whitbread says kids will need parental guidance through the digital world and strong research and communication will be needed to help them.

He adds it’s important to teach kids to ignore, as best they can, things like bullying.

“Scrolling past, blocking, reporting of course, but most importantly, you need to have a real conversation at the kitchen table or in your living room or your classroom with a teacher when bad things could or might happen. No different than anything else as when we were raised.”

Whitbread there are lots of stories about kids doing what he calls “wonderful things” online. He says there are kids who are earning some money on sites like Twitch and others who create and share online content safely within their school and across the internet because of teacher and parent support.