Healthy social media use
About this resource
This article explores how parents, carers, and educators can help children use social media in responsible, respectful, meaningful, and safe ways.
Age range for this resource
For parents, carers, and educators of children aged 3 to 12 years.
Goal of this resource
To foster children’s sense of belonging and connections with known others.
To promote children’s understanding of using social media in responsible, respectful, meaningful, and safe ways.
How might educators use this resource?
Share this article with your colleagues. Think about how children may want to use social media to have fun, be creative, make and maintain friendships, share, learn, explore their identity, and/or develop relationships.
How might families use this resource?
Your child might want to use social media to connect with friends and family. Use this article to learn strategies about how best to support your child to use social media in safe, responsible, respectful, and meaningful ways. To see whether social media applications (apps) are appropriate for your child, you could check Children & Media Australia which provides reviews and age suitability recommendations for popular apps that have been developed by child development professionals. You could also utilise Common Sense Media which provides expert, independent, and age-based reviews and ratings for games and apps so parents and carers feel more confident about making good choices for their children.
How might organisations use this resource?
Provide a link to this article in your newsletter or communications with families. Invite parents and carers to think about how they might respond when their child first expresses interest in using social media. Suggest that this article provides guidance about how parents and carers can best support children with safe social media use.
What learning might we see?
Parents, carers, and educators becoming familiar with practical tips to support children’s use of social media in responsible, respectful, meaningful, and safe ways.
Children developing an awareness about how to use social media in responsible, respectful, meaningful, and safe ways.
Practices
Supervising
Children use internet-connected technologies with filters and passwords applied and always with active adult supervision.
Area
Citizenship
Citizenship in digital contexts recognises that young children are active participants in their communities now and into the future. As citizens, young children respect their own rights and those of other people, and develop an appreciation for cultural, racial, gender, and religious diversity. Digital rights, digital privacy, online safety, and cyber-safety education provide a foundation for early citizenship in digital contexts.
Connection to relevant standards
Belonging, Being, and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia V2.0 (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022)
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Children feel safe, secure, and supported (e.g., Children establish and maintain respectful, trusting relationships with other children and educators).
Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience, and agency (e.g., Educators provide children with strategies to make informed choices about their actions, interactions and behaviours).
Children develop knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a positive sense of self-worth (e.g., Educators support children to identify and assess risks in play and learning and to cope with the unexpected).
Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy, and respect (e.g., Children recognise safe and unsafe situations; Children identify trusted adults and friends; Educators support children to learn about and recognise safe and unsafe situations).
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Children develop a sense of connectedness to groups and communities and an understanding of their reciprocal rights and responsibilities as active and informed citizens (e.g., Educators provide opportunities for children to investigate ideas, complex concepts, and ethical issues that are relevant to their lives and their local communities).
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Children become strong in their social, emotional, and mental wellbeing (e.g., Educators discuss and model appropriate use of digital technologies and discuss how to keep children safe online with children and families; Educators update their own learning of digital and cyber safety for children).
Children are aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental and physical health and personal safety (e.g., Educators learn about e-safety for children and embed and model safe digital practices).
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials (e.g., Educators select and introduce appropriate tools, technologies, and media and provide the skills, knowledge, and techniques to enhance children’s learning; Educators develop their skills and knowledge with digital technologies and media in their curriculum to use them confidently with children).
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts (e.g., Children view and listen to printed, visual, and multimedia texts and respond with relevant gestures, actions, comments, and/or questions).
Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media (e.g., Children view, listen and respond to simple printed, visual, and multimedia texts or music and express how it makes them feel).
Children use digital technologies and media to access information, investigate ideas, and represent their thinking (e.g., Educators teach children critical reflection skills and encourage them to evaluate the quality and trustworthiness of information sources; Educators have opportunities to develop their own knowledge and understanding of appropriate digital technology use and safety with children and families).
National Quality Standard (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, 2019)
Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice (e.g., Educators are deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in their decisions and actions; Each child’s agency is promoted, enabling them to make choices and decisions that influence events and their world).
Quality Area 2: Children’s health and safety (e.g., Each child’s wellbeing and comfort is provided for, including appropriate opportunities to meet each child’s need for sleep, rest, and relaxation; At all times, reasonable precautions and adequate supervision ensure children are protected from harm and hazard).
Quality Area 5: Relationships with children (e.g., Responsive and meaningful interactions build trusting relationships which engage and support each child to feel secure, confident, and included; The dignity and rights of every child are maintained).
Quality Area 6: Collaborative partnerships with families and communities (e.g., Current information is available to families about the service and relevant community services and resources to support parenting and family wellbeing).
National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018)
Principle 1: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance, and culture.
Principle 2: Children and young people are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
Principle 3: Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
Principle 5: People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.
Principle 7: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.
Principle 8: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.
Explore More
If these ideas are new to you, explore these related resources:
Think U Know – Parent and carer social media starter kit
Developed by the Australian Federal Police and Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE), this downloadable booklet includes social media safety measures that parents and carers can put in place to prevent online child sexual exploitation.
Kids Helpline – Social media and safety
This article provides information for parents and carers about helping children use social media well and stay safe online.
For more ideas, explore these related resources:
Developed by the eSafety Commissioner, this webpage helps parents and carers learn about protecting children’s personal information and reporting harmful content on common social media, games, mobile applications (apps), and websites.
Posts, photos, comments and blogs about children
This Raising Children Network article helps parents and carers think about whether to share information about their child online.
If you would like to read some research, explore these related resources:
Edwards, S. (2021). Cyber-safety and COVID-19 in the early years: A research agenda. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 19(3), 396–410. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X211014908
Neumann, M. M., & Herodotou, C. (2020). Young children and YouTube: A global phenomenon. Childhood Education, 96(4), 72–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2020.1796459