by Lynette Owens

It’s so easy to share photos using mobile social networking apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. The fact that we can capture something we’ve seen and need to share immediately with our friends and family is an amazing ability. One tap and you have a picture. One more and you have a massive audience for it.

During Hurricane Sandy, Instagram logged around 1.3 million photos tagged with the word #sandy. These were images taken by the public and shared with the world, so the rest of us could see what was happening, up close and in near real-time. It will go down as another shining example of social media’s usefulness and power to do good.

But the same tools can be misused, to the detriment of the person using it. We’ve seen a current trend among youth around the world taking and photos of private information in and sharing them in public places. Before giving your kids a smart phone this holiday, be aware and ready to give your kids the right guidance.

Continue reading about guiding children on the safe use of social media >>>

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