Photo: Tibrina Hobson/Getty
Social media gives users thepower to communicatewith strangers all over the world. Some blind online interactions lead tofriendship, love and family connection, while others have resulted in“catfishing,” stalking or worse.
Earlier this month,Travis Barker‘s daughterAlabama Luella, 13, made headlines when she shared since-deleted screenshots ofinappropriate direct messagesshe received from Echosmith drummer Graham Sierota.
The earliest Instagram messages — including, “By the way I’m Graham from echosmith and I think ur beautiful” — date back to 2016, when theBlink-182rocker’s daughter was 10 years old. Then a few weeks ago, on July 12, 20-year-old Sierota invited Alabama to a barbecue.
He added, “That’s predatory behavior and there is nothing cool, normal or okay about it at all.”
Mary Clavering/Getty
“I had invited Alabama to my parents’ big family BBQ along with many other people, and it wasn’t until she responded that I realized her ageat which point I apologized to her,” Sierota said. “I’m really sorry and feel very badly about this. I didn’t realize she was a minor and assumed she was my age.”
“I made a careless mistake and this is a big lesson for me,” he added. “I would like to apologize again to Alabama, her dad Travis and her family.”
“This was an honest mistake,” his family said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Graham is clearly a sweet kid who thinks everyone is his friend. This is a big lesson for everyone and we are going to push Instagram and social media to force people to put their ages in their bio so that it can be informative to both sides.”
Alabamahas since forgiven the musician: “He is very sorry about the situation and regretful … I forgive him and would like for this all to be over,” she wrote in an Instagram Story on Aug. 2.
Alabama Barker’s Instagram.Alabama Barker/Instagram
Still, the incident poses the question: How do we keep kids safe on social media? Instagram’s head of public policy Karina Newton weighs in.
Open Dialogue
Newton tells PEOPLE that step one is for parents to create a“shared language” with their teensand make sure the entire family is on the same page.
“Frequently, parents who have teens who are on Instagram may not be Instagram users themselves, so they don’t know what the terms are or what questions they should be asking,” Newton tells PEOPLE. “Atparents.instagram.com, we included a glossary of Instagram terms, which I think is really important.”
Parents.instagram.com was designed to help parents “understand the changing digital landscape and what your kids are doing online,” according to the website.
Newton says it features a list of 10 questions that help parents opena conversation about social mediawith their teens, including, “What do you like about Instagram?”, “What are five accounts you’re following?” and “Have you ever felt uncomfortable with something you saw?”
Teenager using smartphone.Getty
Privacy and Security Settings
Of course, the account privacy setting is always an option on Instagram — and Newton suggests that users under 18 turn it on — but the social media platform also has several other policies in place to ensure that privacy is protected.
She adds, “There’s also a field to manually add any words or phrases or emojis that you don’t want to show up on your posts.”
RELATED VIDEO: Blogger Father’s Texting “X-Plan” Is a Peer-Pressure Hack
Reporting Inappropriate Content
Instagram users can report other sensitive material (like posts that include proof or implications of self-harm, or live broadcasts that document at-risk behavior), as well as inappropriate, abusive or simplyunwanted interactions via direct message. As a general rule of thumb, Newton tells PEOPLE that parents should encourage their kids to never accept messages from strangers.
“When you send a report, it goes to our trained team of reviewers who check reports 24 hours a day,” she says. “We work quickly to remove any violating content, and [what] defines the violating content is what’s in those community guidelines.”
Newton notes that employees who filter through reported content review the context of the post and try to fully understand the case before taking action.
Teenagers using social media on smartphones.Getty
Extra Protection
But regardless of the policies in place, she says that “Every parent knows their kid,” which makes them the best judge of what (and how much) to monitor on their social media accounts.
source: people.com
