Amy Jo Martin Quotes

Just as we teach our children how to ride a bike, we need to teach them how to navigate social media and make the right moves that will help them. The physical world is similar to the virtual world in many cases. It's about being aware. We can prevent many debacles if we're educated.

Generally, social networking sites can be hugely promising and beneficial in opening new friendships and vistas and knowledge of the world, but they are also fraught with peril, when young people are reckless or headless.

As children, many of us were taught never to talk to strangers. As parents and grandparents, our message must change with technology to include strangers on the Internet.

It's an odd thing when there is a fan page for my daughter who is not yet 13.

No one's arguing that the Internet is evil. But talking about strangers is another conversation you have to have with your kids.

There are a lot of pros and cons about social media; it's just how you choose to handle it and how you have to be prepared for the negatives as well.

Kids need to remember that when you put something on Twitter, it's not like whispering to your friend, you've put it on a billboard that the whole world, including your own kids someday, can see.

The best defense against these people is to educate parents and children of the dangers that come along with the Internet and by limiting access to certain sites during the school day.

Internet safety begins at home and that is why my legislation would require the Federal Trade Commission to design and publish a unique website to serve as a clearinghouse and resource for parents, teachers and children for information on the dangers of surfing the Internet.

I am the parent of teenagers, my daughters are 13 and 15, so the issue of Internet safety has been an important issue. I have been visiting middle schools to talk about some of the challenges that they face.

The Internet is a great information tool, and can be a place where kids learn, but we must remember that when kids are online, they are in public.

We think that there is this terrible idea that the kids are digital natives... and they know what they're doing, but all the evidence says that they're hanging around going, 'Where are you, I'm here, can I post my picture?' They're not actually writing wikis; they're not actually listening to great poets live.

There's a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don't have to think, you just have to get more information - gets very dangerous.

I think one of the problems I think with a lot of people in high school is that people don't think of the Internet as a real place or a place that has physical consequences in the physical world. This happens with adults who ought to know better, too.

I'm just so against kids being on Twitter because they are not thinking about the ramifications of what they are saying or the emotion of how they say it.

I have this really bad habit of doing things on the Internet and forgetting that the whole world is going to see it.

You have to be really careful with what you put out on social media and who you're talking to online.

In my workshops for young adults, the most important thing I emphasize is that anything posted online, no matter how private they think it is, is permanent.

And I always say sign up for MySpace and see what your kid is doing. Be his friend on MySpace. Know what your child is doing online because you're going to know more there than you'd ever know when he goes to school.

I think, having grown up with the Internet, things like trolls and the world of having an online life as well as a physical one, it's something I've grown up with.

When it comes to things like social media, the only time I go crazy is when my kids get affected, like when they get someone stupid saying something ignorant to them about me because they are babies.

Most parents would not hesitate to assume responsibility for their child's behavior on a playground, at school, or in someone else's home. What happens online should be no different. Parents should talk with their children about computer ethics, stipulate rules of conduct, and - most importantly - establish consequences.

Instagram is wonderful in so many ways, but it's also something that should be used with respect - for yourself and for other people.

I block the trolls.

Never post anything personal to your Facebook wall. Or anyone else's, for that matter. Only snitches and teachers look at Facebook.