How Can I Keep My Child Safe on Social Media? | Dr Holly Powell-Jones

This week, Dr Holly Powell-Jones, an expert on media law, talks to Clare about how to keep your child safe on social media and when they’re online.

Holly is the founder of Online Media Law UK, specialising in research, training and consultancy on media law and ethics for the digital age. She’s a former broadcast journalist with a PhD from City University on youth understanding of risk & responsibility on social media.

Holly has designed and delivered large scale education projects, teaching thousands of children in schools about online law, and contributed to research projects related to social media, youth, crime, law, human rights, and online safety. Holly is the Online Law Leader for the Global Equality Collective and won a Violent Crime Prevention Board award for her work in 2020.

You can find Holly on her website, OnlineMediaLaw.co.uk, and on Twitter: @OnlineMediaLaw

Holly recommends the book, Online and Social Media Law, by Cleland Thom and David Porter.

The three top tips Holly shares with us in the episode are:

1. Educate YOURSELF about online media law (and practise what you preach!)
2. Ask children ‘What do YOU think?’ to open up discussion about ethical issues on social media. For example, if there’s something being talked about in the news, seek their views on it.
3. Avoid negative judgement. Allow young people to make mistakes (this is normal!) and encourage them to learn from these in a supportive way.

The My Family Coach podcasts covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15 minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.