The professional consultant offers tips on the security of social media in the Mars Area Community Library – Butler Eagle

If 10-year-old Kevin McCallister were left alone at home in 2025, would he be the same mastermind that outwisted the wet bandits, or would he be too busy of unattended social media and video games to notice the threat?

As a licensed professional consultant, Alexandra Dimoff has been thinking for almost nine years that the parents largely monitor their child's electronics and demonstrate media literacy in order to create healthy practices when they presented on Saturday afternoon in the Mars Area Community Library.

Dimoff presented guidelines for safe electronics and social media use for parents in order to monitor the content of your child more precisely and to limit your exposure to inappropriate content.

Dimoff emphasized the Apple security functions and demonstrated with integrated functions on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat to filter bad actors from reaching children. She said from the three apps Tiktok creates the greatest risk for the children from the age of five in the adults, whom she serves.

“It is inevitable that children want to be on social media,” said Dimoff. “It is not something you can keep away from. It's just about keeping up with the time and promoting them so that they are safe there. “

Tikkok represents risks with trends that lead to children trying dangerous challenges such as the blackout challenge. The blackout challenge at Tikkok became viral and encouraged children to suffocate themselves and to lose awareness as close as possible.

Dimoff showed a picture of 10-year-old Nylah Anderson, who died in Chester County in December 2021. It also referred to the Benadryl Hallucination challenge, which encourages children to take a dangerous amount of substance.

Instagram offers some similar content with its roles, but is mainly an app app app. Instagram has more integrated data protection settings with which users can set their account to private, so that only followers can see content, and the followers must be approved.

Instagram also allows comments to be switched off, which is one of the most important places that cyberbullying occurs, said Dimoff. Instagram also enables other accounts and locations on the day, which shows the published content in the account of the Tagged page.

“I saw how a peer makes videos that mocked a customer, then he marks it in it, and it shows himself on his side so that everyone can see it,” said Dimoff.

Instead, the tags can be approved manually to limit what is displayed on the user's website. According to Dimoff, parents should not rely on their child's school to protect them from cyberbullying. She said schools can usually only get involved if the cyberbully content is published in the content of the school premises in school lessons or at school school events on the school premises.

Dimoff also explained that a suspicious Instagram account will probably only have a few posts, followers and accounts that follow. A verified account has a blue checkmark on the top of the screen next to the user name.

For Snapchat, Dimoff explained the tab “only my eyes”. A folder photo can be organized in which a four -digit pen is required for access. She said that children will often keep photos that their parents do not want to see in the tab.

Snapchat usually deletes messages and photos as soon as the user has displayed, but the image or the message can still be saved and shared as a screenshot. The police can also charge Snapchat to access deleted messages.

According to Dimoff, most of the customers they met in the treatment of mental health, Apple devices and continues to explain the privacy and account settings of Apple that can adapt. For parents with Android devices, Dimoff Bark recommends a data protection app that sends a notification to the parent's phone when marking uncertain activities and predatory behaviors.

According to Dimoff, parents should also model the correct electronic use, e.g. B. how you are friendly on social media and put the electronics away and at the same time promote other types of games.