As parents, we know we need to do all we can to make sure our kids make good decisions. We also know that teens need to understand the consequences of their actions. But, what happens when there are clear negative influences in your teen’s life? Should parents speak up? Yes!
This is called being an active parent. By acting as a filter to prevent harmful events from influencing your teen, you can lower the likelihood of your teen getting in dangerous situations. Such situations include events that might encourage the use of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs, reckless sexual behavior, and violence. The goal is not to censor every negative influence your teen might experience, but to help your teen put negative influences into proper perspective.
Nine Ways to Filter out Negative Influences:
1. Become familiar with the media your teen uses – and agree on reasonable usage guidelines. Media can include TV, computers, tablets and smartphones.
2. Watch some of what your teen watches and then discuss the messages presented.
3. Learn to use parental controls and usage trackers provided by Internet providers and other methods of monitoring what your teen is accessing online.
4. If practical, keep computers in public areas of the home where you can easily check to make sure only sites that you approve of are being opened.
5. Talk with the parents of your teen’s friends and encourage them to be vigilant. Teens will often seek out homes where the restrictions are lax.
6. Set and enforce reasonable curfews.
7. Know where your teen is and have him check in periodically.
8. Get to know the teens and adults your teen spends time with most often. Talk with your teen about choosing friends as well as how friends influence each other.
9. Subtly influence who your teen spends time with most often.
