Children should use smartphones smartly

Renowned South African social media expert Magriet Groenewald has urged parents to teach children to use their smartphones responsibly.

“Social media (and the internet) has almost become like a tattoo,” said Groenewald, the founder of Magriet.co, an online Social Media Business School.

She warned that whatever one posts today could go on to haunt them 10 years from now, adding: “Once it’s out there on the internet, it lives on forever”.

This creative guru is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs, business owners and influencers to show up online, connect authentically and sell more, but she’s also extremely concerned about the younger generation, and the lack of knowledge parents have about social media and how to guide, monitor, manage and protect their children.

Groenewald urged parents to always remember the “screenshot” is a gamechanger, and cautioned: “Even if you delete a post and someone has taken a screenshot of your post, you don’t have any control over it anymore”.

Parents should pay attention and teach their children the following:

Before posting, they should ask themselves whether the post or the content they’re about to upload can be seen by:

- Their parents or grandparents? - Their friends’ parents?

- Their teacher or principal? - The police?

- Scammers or paedophiles? - Future universities or colleges? - Future employers?

“If the answer is no to any of these questions, then do not post it,” said Groenewald.

She believes social media and the internet have great benefits for the younger generation, but it is parents’ responsibility to guide them to use them safely.

During her seven exciting years in the industry, she has been the expert driving force behind numerous successful marketing campaigns for well-known clients, including Schalk Bezuidenhout, Minki van der Westhuizen, Hykie Berg, Karlien van Jaarsveld, among many others.

In addition to obtaining her honours degree in marketing at university, Groenewald also enrolled for several international social media marketing courses.

You can follow her for more parentresources at magriet.co/parentsresources.