The Florida legislature continues to debate whether the government can limit young peoples’ social media use. Meanwhile, a provider of mental health care is offering two free online sessions to help parents keep kids safe on social media.
Elizabeth Gonzalo, a young childhood clinician at SalusCare in Fort Myers, will present the sessions. She says she is seeing some self-esteem, confidence, and anxiety issues in young people that appear to be linked to social media use.
“So I hope that this just encourages parents and grandparents and guardians just to look into what their kids are doing on social media and how to spot those signs that maybe social media is negatively affecting their kids,” she said. “And just to take an interest in what your kids are doing online, ask them those questions out of curiosity, not out of judgment, check in with their social media settings. Are they on private? Who are they posting for? What are they posting? And just to make sure that they're being safe online.”
Gonzalo encourages parents to take an interest in their children’s online lives.
“Kids these days are posting, using social media as their primary source to express themselves,” Gonzalo said. “So I'm finding a lot of times that parents are learning a lot about their kids based on what they're posting on social media. So if you're not aware of what your kid is posting, I would just encourage parents to take an interest in that because it could tell you a lot about them about the way that they're feeling that maybe you wouldn't know.”
Participants need to pre-register for the sessions, held Wednesday March 13 at 1 and Wednesday, March 13 at 6 PM.
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