“A really important skill to teach children is critical thinking when it comes to social media.”
Proverbs 18:15 – The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.
Teach your children to not just accept what they see, for example, if someone on social media says something, you should teach your children to question it.
We know large numbers of young people today have anxiety. Sometimes social media can present us with information that makes us worry unnecessarily.
For example this 2019 NZ Herald article predicted doom and gloom if earth’s poles reverse, this made many people really anxious – NZ Herald article
Yet a better NZ Herald article suggests that the effects of the polls reversing will not be nearly so devastating as the first article suggested – NZ Herald article
We need to teach children to question things. Good questions to ask include, who said this, what authority do they have to say it? Are there people who disagree with them?
Too often people panic about distressing posts on social media that turn out to be nothing, we should teach children to apply critical thinking to the information they receive.
Also, you should teach your children to think critically about what they post, in Christchurch a group of teenagers posted about a young person who died. This was how the family learned their child had died, so we should teach people to think about when and what they share online.