Summer in Beijing means pool days, splashing around, and escaping the heat. But before you dive in, let’s talk about keeping your little ones safe—because nothing ruins a fun day faster than an accident or a nasty post-swim infection.

First things first: if your child can’t swim yet, floaties are a must. Even in shallow water, kids can slip under in seconds, and drowning doesn’t always look like the dramatic splashing you see in movies. It’s silent and fast. So if they’re not strong swimmers, stick close, keep them in proper flotation gear, and always check that there’s a lifeguard on duty.

One vlogger on Douyin went as far as making a video that showed which color swimsuits stand out better in the water and which tend to camouflage with the pool. He tested 15 different colored swimsuits in the pool and outdoors to test which colors are the easiest to spot.

He concluded that cool colors like blue, purple, or white tend to blend in with indoor pools. But outdoors, these lighter cool colors stood out, but dark cool colors became practically invisible underwater. He referenced a case when a girl was stranded in the ocean for 36 hours, and after being rescued, she recounted seeing rescue boats searching for her just 20 feet away, but were unable to spot her floating in her black swimsuit. His point? Stick to bright, warm color swimsuits. In case your child is drowning, certain colors of swimsuits can make them harder for lifeguards to spot.

Now, let’s talk hygiene. Not all pools are sparkling clean, and trust me, a fun afternoon isn’t worth dealing with itchy skin, a stomach bug, or worse, herpangina later on.

My daughter’s first visit to a water park was full of fun memories of splashing around and foam party festivities, but three days later, it turned into a high fever and a week of being sick from herpangina. Could she have contracted it somewhere else? Sure, there’s always that chance. But the few times she swallowed pool water that’s possibly got more fecal matter than hygienically acceptable seems more likely to be the source of the infection.

Make sure your kids rinse off before and after swimming, and teach them to keep pool water out of their mouths (easier said than done, I know). If a pool looks murky or smells overly chemical-y, it’s probably best to skip it.

If you’re super adamant about seeing proof of whether a pool is up to standard or not, there are test strips you can purchase on Taobao that will give you results in minutes.

Swimming should be all about laughter and making memories, not trips to the doctor. So stay alert, pick your pools wisely, and have an awesome, safe summer splashing around!

If you’re looking for some great pools in Beijing where you can spend your time this summer, check out our list at the link below.

Images: Freepik, Douyin, Taobao

It’s as if overnight Xiaohongshu has seen a sudden and remarkable surge in popularity. While it offers a platform for sharing fashion, beauty, travel, and lifestyle tips, this newfound popularity also brings to light the importance of internet safety for kids using such apps. The group chat function is a great way for kids to practice different languages and discuss topics they’re interested in, but it comes with a ton of dangers of its own. After just spending 20 minutes in a group, I heard a young girl excitedly say, “I’ll be in Malaysia next month. We can meet up.” And that was when I chimed in with a quick, “Please don’t meet up with strangers you meet online.” Sometimes even our brightest teens can forget that the safe environment that they may live in doesn’t extend to the entire internet.

As parents, it’s crucial to be aware of the potential risks and take proactive steps to safeguard our children. This is why giving our kids a refresher course on internet safety, particularly when engaging with others on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, is a necessity.

The digital world is an integral part of our children’s lives. It has opened up a world of connections, allowing kids to interact with friends, share experiences, and discover new interests. However, this virtual playground also harbors numerous risks that parents cannot afford to ignore.

Social media platforms, including Xiaohongshu, are filled with strangers, some of whom may have malicious intent. Children may unknowingly share personal information such as their full name, address, school name, or even their daily or upcoming schedules. This information can be exploited by predators, putting them in real-world danger. For example, a child might talk about or post about their upcoming school trip on Xiaohongshu, and a person with ill-intentions could use this information to track their whereabouts.

Then there’s online bullying. Kids may receive hurtful messages, mean comments, or be excluded from virtual groups, which can have a devastating impact on their mental health and self-esteem.

Take the time to talk to your kids or give them a refresher course on internet safety.

1. Privacy Is Paramount

Teach Privacy Settings: Parents must show their kids how to navigate the privacy settings on Xiaohongshu. Explain that they can access the settings menu, usually found in the profile section, and adjust who can see their posts, stories, and personal information. Remind them that public posts can be seen by anyone, including those with bad intentions.

Limit Personal Information Sharing: Stress that under no circumstances should they share sensitive personal details like their home address, phone number, or the name of their school on Xiaohongshu. A simple rule could be: If they wouldn’t share it with a random person on the street, they shouldn’t share it online.

2. Friending With Caution

Verify Before Accepting: Instruct kids to be extremely cautious when accepting friend requests from people they don’t know in real life. For Xiaohongshu, remind them that just because someone has an attractive profile filled with trendy posts doesn’t mean they are trustworthy.

3. Recognizing and Responding To Inappropriate Content

Spotting Red Flags: Teach kids to recognize inappropriate content such as explicit images, vulgar language, or posts that promote dangerous behaviors.
How To React: Explain that if they come across any inappropriate content or receive disturbing messages, they should not engage. Instead, they should immediately block the user, report the content to the platform, and inform a parent or a trusted adult.

Most importantly, remind your kids that it’s never too late to ask for your help. By arming our children with this knowledge through regular internet safety refresher courses, we can help them navigate the digital world, especially platforms like Xiaohongshu, more safely and securely.

Images: Xiaohongshu

Do you remember those “stop, drop, and roll” drills in elementary school? Well, I do! I also remember earthquake drills and actually paying attention to the safety demonstration the first few times I rode a plane. But what I don’t remember is ever actually putting those skills to use (thankfully).

But here in Beijing, there’s a place where kids learn the essential emergency safety procedures and can actually get some first-hand demonstrations of how they work. From escaping from a sinking car to jumping onto the inflatable evacuation slide on the plane.

The Beijing Public Safety Experience Hall 北京公共安全体验馆 (běi jīng gōng gòng ān quán tǐ yàn guǎn) is dedicated to teaching kids all the essential emergency survival skills they need in the modern world. After a quick intro on why it’s important to know how to stay safe, kids get to see all the gear and equipment every emergency department uses and experience various emergency scenarios.

Fire safety is an essential lesson that every kid needs to know. Kids go through the step-by-step on how to safely evacuate a building and how to put out flames. But in Beijing many of us live high-rise buildings, sometimes the quickest way out is through the window. Firefighters assist kids in getting first-hand experiences in propelling out of a balcony.

In case anyone ever finds themselves in a car that’s slowly sinking into the bottom of a lake, there’s an emergency scenario for that. Experts explain how to stay calm and find your quickest escape route.

In the case of earthquakes, there’s a room where you can experience what it actually feels like to be in one.

Finally, for the travelers, you get to actually jump out of the plane and slide down one of those inflatable ramps like we’ve seen on demonstration videos before takeoff.

For those interested in learning to save others, the Beijing Public Safety Experience Hall also offers CPR training to kids and adults.

If there’s one place that parents should spend a meaningful afternoon with the kids it’s here. The best way to take the fear and panic out of emergency situations is to know what to expect.

Note: The classes are all taught in Chinese.

Prices:
Depending on what you’re looking to do and the level you’re looking for the prices will range between RMB 220 to RMB 398. A four-hour introductory CPR training will cost you RMB 210 if you purchase it on Dianping.

Find it:
Beijing Public Safety Experience Hall  北京公共安全体验馆(首都机场店)
No. 179 Longtang Road, Liqiao Town
李桥镇龙塘路179号院
Tel: 13811392380, 13811392381

Images: Dianping

Easter Sunday came and went but there might be an unpleasant surprise lurking in those imported chocolate eggs – Salmonella Typhimurium.

Hopefully by now, you have already heard the news of Ferrero Group’s worldwide recall which was announced by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Friday (Apr 15), warning consumers not to purchase or consume products made at Ferrero’s Arlon plant in Belgium due to possible salmonella contamination.

Along with the UK-centric products that have been recalled (Kinder Surprise, Kinder Surprise Maxi, Kinder Mini Eggs and Kinder Schok-Bons), Ferrero U.S.A., Inc. also recalled the Kinder Happy Moments, Kinder Mix Chocolate Treats, as well as Crispy Wafers Assortments that have a Universal Product Code (UPC) of 09800 52025 on its right side panel and a “Best By” date of Jul 18, 2022.

Luckily for us in China, what retail is the Kinder Joy and Kinder Bueno, which were announced to be unaffected on Ferrero’s website at the time of writing.

On Monday (Apr 18), Forbes reported that over 150 people, mostly young children, across 10 countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, had contracted salmonella. Most of the victims below 10 years of age have been hospitalised due to the health risks brought on by salmonella’s most common symptoms including diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps that may last up to seven days.

If you think your child might have contracted salmonella, please seek medical attention immediately.

If you have purchased any of the recalled products via any Mainland China shopping channels, do not consume them and throw them out at once. You will be able to request a refund for the recalled products through that channel. According to GAC, you can also request a refund from Ferrero China.

KEEP READING: Bittersweet Indulgence: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Chocolate

Images: Pexels

This week the Beijing Municipal Education Commission announced that all schools will be required to have AED machines on campus for the safety of faculty and students.

What is an AED?

The American Red Cross states on their website: “An AED, or automated external defibrillator, is used to help those experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. It’s a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, medical device that can analyze the heart’s rhythm and, if necessary, deliver an electrical shock, or defibrillation, to help the heart re-establish an effective rhythm.“

Why Learn to Use an AED?

According to the Red Cross, “sudden cardiac arrest is among the leading causes of death in the United States.” The organization also says, “Currently, the only way to restore a regular heart rhythm during cardiac arrest is to use an AED.“
The Red Cross goes on to state on its website that because “for each minute defibrillation is delayed, the odds of survival are reduced by approximately 10%, having access to an AED and knowing how to use one, is critical.” Clearly, then, it is incredibly important to be knowledgeable about AEDs, to have access to them, and to know how to properly use them.

Facts About AEDs

The following information is taken from Cardio Partners, and was originally presented in the blog post “The Importance of AEDs in Schools.” Check out their blog for more vital information.

Thousands of Children Die From Cardiac Arrest Each Year
According to the American Heart Association’s latest figures, 7,037 children die from cardiac arrest each year. When you consider that most American children spend between 175 and 180 days in school each year and receive between 900 and 1,000 hours of instructional time per year (Center for Public Education) it’s critically important for our public schools to have AEDs readily available.

SCA is Shockingly Common
It’s hard to believe, but two in fifty high schools in the United States can expect [a Sudden Cardiac Arrest]event each year.

AEDs in Schools Dramatically Improve the Hospital Survival Rate
The hospital survival rate of students who suffer from cardiac arrest in a school with an AED is approximately 70%, compared with only approximately 8% in the overall population of school-age children (American College of Cardiology).

Young Athletes are More Likely to Experience Sudden Cardiac Death than Non-Athletes
In the United States, a young competitive athlete dies suddenly every three days. Young athletes are more than twice as likely to experience SCD than young non-athletes (Close the Gap). The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that two-thirds of the deaths caused by SCA in children occur during exercise or activity. In fact, SCA is the leading cause of death in young athletes.

Every Second Counts
The American College of Cardiology notes that, “The most important contributing factor for survival of sudden cardiac arrest is the time from collapse to defibrillation. Survival decreases 10% every minute until a shock is applied.”

Anyone Can Use an AED
Studies indicate that students without any prior CPR or AED training can accurately use an AED as directed. AEDs are, by design, easy to use. By following an AED’s simple, clear voice prompts, bystanders can perform the crucial steps that can save a life. [Note from Jingkids: Although AEDs may seem easy to use, proper training from medical professionals is still necessary.To make things easier and safer for students here in Beijing, Oasis International Hospital has already started AED training at international schools across the city.]

Finding the Best Location for Your AED is Important
Your school’s AED can’t save a life if no one can find it! Finding the best placement for your AED is crucial. Locating an AED in a highly visible and public location can mean the difference between life and death.

Do you think requiring AEDs on school campuses is a positive move? And more importantly, if they are needed, do you know how to use one?

KEEP READING: Stay Safe: Emergency Numbers and Information

Images: Pexels

In one of the bazillion WeChat groups I’m a member of, I caught a spontaneous discussion on the rules of engagement between teachers, parents, and students. People were basically comparing their schools’ protocols, and talking about why they found them effective or not, and the idea of protocol for engagement between teachers, parents, and students translates across the world. The discussion got me thinking about such boundaries, and why teachers would appreciate them.

First off, I will admit that, as a parent, I don’t always follow the rules. My go-to for communicating with teachers is the Seesaw app. Even though I know the office always requests an email, in the year of our internet overlords 2021 it is more intuitive for me to use an app than to write an email. And when I’m in a hurry or not thinking properly, I selfishly use what is most convenient for me. So here is my public apology to my kids’ teachers, is what I’m saying.

I can project that if I had contact with teachers on WeChat I would use it. However, I doubt that teachers need their students’ parents to know every time they post a photo from the pub or how they spend their off time. But it likely goes deeper than that.

A friend of mine in the United States is a university professor, and he won’t friend or follow any of his students on social media, no matter whether they are undergraduate or graduate students. For him, it’s a matter of propriety and keeping his own life away from his classroom.

But what is it we say here? WeChat is life! So how can teachers keep their private lives private, and communication streamlined, in such a one-social-media-platform-fits-all society? And is it necessary?

One Year 7 and 8 teacher, who requested anonymity, told me that neither students nor parents in her international school are allowed to add teachers on WeChat, and vice versa. They have homeroom WeChat groups with parents and one administrator, but no teacher, which is also my own experience.

When asked if she thinks this approach provides the proper boundaries, she replied, “I think it does. No personal contact whatsoever. Parents cannot just turn up. They must make appointments. The norm is to email with questions or queries about their child. Students can also email us.”

Another early years teacher in a bilingual international school let me know that, officially, they aren’t allowed to use WeChat to communicate with parents or students. However, many of the Chinese teachers do so because it’s faster, particularly because WeChat allows them to send audio messages.

With the revelation that it isn’t illegal for teachers to have sexual relations with students aged 14 and over, I asked local Beijing teenagers what they thought as well. Recent high school graduate Gabriella Perez said that “Before this school year, and during quarantine, I communicated with more than half my teachers through WeChat, either privately or in groups, and I thought it was fine. I hid them from seeing my moments, and it was handy I could access them so easily.” This past year Perez’s school moved to Microsoft Teams, which she found more cumbersome.

However, another student at a different international school (BCIS), thinks it’s reasonable to have a policy of no WeChat contact between students and teachers. She’s been able to transition to Microsoft Teams smoothly, and email feels more formal than just using WeChat. For her, “WeChat has always been a texting app between my friends and me. We share gossip or send funny jokes. I just can’t imagine WeChat being as serious as email, and also it’ll be weird since WeChat is more of a personal chatting app for me.”

The distinction between how different students see the issue may have something to do with how long WeChat has been part of their lives. For Perez, she had only moved to China the summer before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so using WeChat for teachers as well as friends may not have felt as odd as, say, using Facebook Messenger to talk to teachers in the US would have felt. The BCIS student has lived in China longer, and so may associate it more with her personal life.

An administrator of a private international activity center for kids under five, who spoke to us anonymously, says it’s important that teaching staff not exchange any personal information with parents, especially to avoid cultural miscommunications between foreign teachers and [local] parents. “Instead, we encourage our staff to speak often with parents in person and on-site. During the lockdown, when that was not possible, teachers were given access to the company’s WeChat account if they needed direct contact with a parent.”

Besides the boundaries issues, and knowing how quickly an errant comment on WeChat can cause communication to fly off the rails as people rush to react while still going about their day, I can’t imagine how a teacher would be able to stay focused on any conversation while also teaching and preparing lessons. For many of these reasons, erring on the side of safety and privacy when it comes to teachers, parents, and students is probably the best route for all involved.

KEEP READING: Five Reasons Not to Miss Jingkids’ Summer Fling on May 22!

Images: Pexels

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in America, one in every five people that drown is a child 14 years or younger. The statistics are even higher in countries with no long history of incorporating swimming as part of mandatory Physical Exercise (PE)  in schools, or as part of the national culture. In China, for example, drowning is the second-leading cause of death in children aged 10 to 14, with 5,526 drowning-related cases reported in the year 2013.

To counteract this, many Chinese and International schools in China have begun to offer swimming lessons to students and even faculty. On top of this, many parents have taken the initiative to sign children as young as three months old up for private swimming lessons. At the very least, every child should know the basics of how to swim, if only to ensure they can survive a drowning incident should they ever fall into a pool or moving water like a river or even the ocean. Here are a few places around Beijing that offer swimming lessons for kids.

Parent-Child Aquatic Therapy Program at Beijing United Hospital

One of the main benefits of kids learning how to swim from an early age is that it improves their motor skills. At Beijing United Hospital, parent-child aquatic therapy offers a fun environment that promotes these skills and sensory stimulation for kids aged three months to four years. This training not only aims to provide water safety awareness but leads to better functioning of the child on land as well. With both group and individually-tailored classes, the lessons are structured around the developmental milestones of each child and provide a fun, active way for parents to bond with their children. The classes offered are split into three categories;

1. Happy Babies – 3-8 months: Promote motor development and sensory stimulation according to each age, develop tolerance to changes in position and posture and build emotional confidence, accomplish vestibular and proprioceptive stimulation, and raise parents’ awareness about how to protect their children in the pool.
2. Water Safety Skills – 9 -14 months: Promote motor development and sensory stimulation according to each age, develop tolerance to changes in position and posture and build emotional confidence, accomplish vestibular and proprioceptive stimulation, and raise parents’ awareness about how to protect their children in the pool.
3. Confident Children – 15 months-2 years: Promote static and dynamic balance and walking independence, promote activities in the lying position, improve breath control, increase vestibular proprioceptive stimulation in sitting and standing positions.
4. Cheery Toddler – 2-3 years: Increase confidence, improve motor development and jump, balance, and play independence, improve hand-eye coordination, increase fine motor development, boost brain cognition.
5. Confidence for Challenging Aquatic Skills – 3-4 years: Improve dynamic stability and walking balance, increase coordination of the whole body, promote social skills, enhance mental agility, increase stamina.

For more information, please scan the QR code below.

DragonFire Swim at 798 Boyu Swim Club

DragonFire club provides different types of training for kids, including gymnastics, ballet, hip-hop, and swimming. If you are looking for a cost-effective way to teach your kids how to swim, then DragonFire is the way to go. Levels range from beginner for kids between 1-3 years old, intermediate for kids between 1-3, and advanced for kids above the age of 5. Classes are from Monday to Sunday,

Scan QR code for booking, location, and pricing information.

Parent and Baby Swimming Lessons at Mookey

Founded by American couple Sunny and Shane Novak, Mookey is a parent-child swimming club dedicated to providing guidance on water safety for infants aged 0-6 years old. It is meant to be a fun and educational parent-child swimming club for all parents in China while spreading the concept of “Parent-Child swimming, the sooner the better!” They follow the standard international baby swimming pool depths of 120m and a consistent water temperature of 32-34℃. Each session includes four major components: parent-child bonding, education on water safety, entertainment, and socialization of the child. This well-rounded approach allows the child to grow up confident and capable of helping themselves in the future in case of an emergency.

For booking and pricing information, please scan the QR codes below.

Photos: Unsplash, courtesy of Mookey, DragonFire Club

I’m usually pretty chill about my kids playing video games. We keep time limits strict, and they prefer playing group games like Mario Kart or educational games with their favorite characters like PBS Kids or Sesame Street.

But I noticed they have trouble on the phone or video calls with friends and cousins across the world. Their lives are so different and there isn’t a lot of common ground if they haven’t seen each other in a while. And let’s face it, we aren’t going to see them for a much longer while. On a recent call, they spent a lot of time trying not to interrupt each other until my oldest heard his younger friend didn’t know the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors” and so proceeded to teach him! That opened up a whole series of fun games to play together.

Based on their chats with their seven-year-old cousin, I heard that Roblox is a good way to “play together.” Even my parents have accounts to play with him. I get nervous about games that involve online chat rooms, but I was assured that you can turn those off.

After a little research and some time with a more experienced six-year-old who helped me set up an account, we presented it as a gift to his friend, my son. I found that thanks to a few strict parental controls and open, honest conversations about what is safe and why, it wasn’t as scary as I thought. For now.

Here are the parental controls I set:

Disable chat or set to “friends only”

Go to privacy tab > account settings > account restrictions for this feature. Online chat rooms are one of my biggest fears when it comes to gaming, so this setting alone put me 50% more at ease.

Set an account pin to make any changes to restrictions.

Make sure it isn’t the same pin as any other device, as kiddos are great at picking up on your codes.

Here are the ground rules we set with our children for their game time:

Follow these rules or it is uninstalled.

It helps that we just went through this process with YouTube. I told them if I didn’t like a channel or a certain video, I would tell them why. We could talk about it, but I have the ability to block it from their laptop. They can either accept this or revert to YouTube Kids, which has much more restrictive access to videos and is quite frankly a pain in the butt for parents.

So we spent most of the first night we had Roblox playing it together and setting the ground rules as we went, making it an open discussion on why something may or may not be safe. That’s when I learned that:

We don’t ever use your real name.

This is a pretty big one for us in general. Since they were born, we’ve used nicknames for our kids 98% of the time and deleted the many comments by our parents when that rule was forgotten. It’s fun to choose a nickname for yourself, too!

Rules for Roblox are good rules for life.

Would you accept an invitation to a party from a stranger? Would you let someone you don’t know inside your house? Would you give a stranger your phone number? No? Not until college? Then don’t do that in the game either. Since I had never played before, we always play a new game together the first time in case more ground rules need to be laid. I’m open about the reasoning behind it and we don’t usually require a big discussion.

If you want to spend Robux, we talk about it first.

I started him off with a few dollars in his Robux account, just because some games require a little something and so we could figure out how to set perimeters for spending. The rule then became: if you want to spend that money, just call me over and we’ll discuss it. Two things usually happen; he’ll talk himself out of it before I do because he’ll see how little he’ll have left if he spends it, or we decide it’s okay. A fun side effect of this is that when relatives across the world want to buy him something, but it will cost so much to ship anything and the last thing they need is more “stuff,” their Auntie Kelly can buy them Robux for Christmas!

If the game involves violence, especially killing people, we need to talk about it and play together first.

I find he’s much more open and responsible if we can discuss certain boundaries. If he knows that it isn’t always an outright “no” to his question, he’s more likely to ask and not try to sneak it. One time we’d set him off on a fun looking game and I focused on my own laptop next to him, when I heard, “So it’s okay if we didn’t know it was a killing game, right?” I assured him he wasn’t in trouble, we assessed the level of violence and its role in the game together, and that was that. Ultimately I decided against it, but he was involved in the process and didn’t fight me on it.

Only play when his Dad, babysitter, or I am with him.

He spends some time after school with his ayi before I’m home, and this is off-limits for online gaming time for now. I still sit next to him when he plays a new game, as will his Dad and babysitter who also plays. Our ayi is wonderful, but it’s not within her comfort zone to moderate a Roblox game, so that is not game time.

Eventually, we’ll learn to build a game of our own together. 

One of the reasons why lots of parents like Roblox is that you can build your own game. All the games on its system are player built, and that gets kids into coding and self-learning. Once we’d played through a few games and had gaming time with his cousin in Boston, my kid opened up his Scratch Jr. program much more often than his Roblox games. He wants to learn how to build his own game and that’s super cool in our books.

Other Perks

Ever since we started with these ground rules, making them part of the experience instead of imposing limits once bad habits were already established, conversations about other types of technology have been easier too. We started playing “Among Us” as a family, which is extremely fun, and they didn’t even blink an eye when I said they never press the “Public” button because we only want to play with people we know.

It’s a good introduction to safety online and will hopefully instill some honest gut checks for when they make decisions more on their own in the future. I’m much happier after opening this door to them as long as we make the map together. If I’d tried to just keep it closed, my kids or their friends would have eventually shoved it open without my guidance, and who knows what would have happened then? Now they get to stay in touch with family members and Beijing friends who moved away in a safe and fun way.

KEEP READING: Screen Time Isn’t All Bad: Lessons to be Mined From Mario, Minecraft and More

Photos: Roblox, Scratch r website, Pexels

Teenagers around the world are some of the most avid and regular users of social media platforms.

Long gone are the days when the only social media sites that everyone talked about were Facebook and Instagram. Now, there are apps for virtually every kind of user forum imaginable, and it doesn’t take much tech savvy to find them, install them and be a part of these online communities, with all the attendant consequences.

With all these new possibilities, it is increasingly imperative for parents to ensure their children’s security online. Teens in China have a limited number of options when it comes to social media platforms and apps they can use, with 84.6% of minors in China using WeChat as their primary social media platform, an increase of 35% in just four years. This is according to the Bluebook of Teenagers published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Although the current generation of kids were born into the age of social media, and thus may be very comfortable in the online world, their actions are not without peril, warns Glenn Lacon, guidance counselor at Dulwich College Beijing (DCB). “It is a fact that teenagers and kids are preoccupied [with]using social media and gadgets in this present age as their hobbies and leisure, which parents and significant people need to be aware of,” explains Lacon, adding, “In the year 2017, based on a study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, more than one in eight Americans aged 12 to 25 experienced a major depressive episode. There are so many contributing factors that cause this mental health problem among the youths.’’

Where does this data leave these young social media users, especially when COVID-19 necessitated the use of social media to maintain friendships in the age of social distancing?

For Beijing-based teens, Chloe C. and Belle P., social media comprise two to five hours of activity on a daily basis. Both also admit to having joined these social media platforms as a result of some form of peer pressure or because others in their friend group were using them. And when asked if they would ever consider deleting their social media platforms permanently, Chloe admitted “I would feel really upset and annoyed about that. I have been relying on social media so much that I don’t think I can even live normally without it. They don’t only provide entertainment but also other functions that are essential for my living. For example, WeChat pay is already part of my life.” Moving away from the inherent usefulness of some of the social media apps, reliance on these platforms for not only entertainment but for interpersonal relationships could be of great concern to most parents.

Granted, in a post-COVID-19 Beijing, social media platforms have been a great coping mechanism for kids and teens the world over, when unable to attend school as normal and thus, cut off from their social groups. Says Lacon, “One way to cope with anxiety and stress is through social media. We can use various social media platforms to chat and call our friends, loved ones, and family members. This has been a great support to connect with many people who felt emotional distress because they were away from their families or stuck in a particular place for months. Social media has been a good tool to express one’s feelings and make friends and rekindle relationships with others.”

There is still a looming spectre of danger lurking around every proverbial corner, however.

“One scenario that teenagers need to be consciously aware of these days is the fake accounts of people they make friends with.” Lacon cautions to be wary of possible blackmailers, who are “often asking for money, phone numbers, and pictures in return. These situations lead to serious problems that cause youths to feel depressed and carry anxieties with them. Being trapped in this case, their school performance, family relationship, and self-esteem are greatly affected,” warns Lacon.

So how can parents help?

“Adults need to set a good example for the younger generation. This starts at home and the foundation of values each parent has to establish in their kids. Parents have to be responsible for their actions and must be present in the lives of their children. Daily communication, knowing their friends and activities are essentials for guiding these growing kids,” Lacon suggests.

Even with that, some parents might worry about their children’s cybersecurity when they are away at school. And according to Lacon, schools too have a major role to play when it comes to safeguarding young social media users. “Schools have to design and implement activities and programs that can help the students understand the proper use of social media. This is a growing concern and must be prioritized. Administrators and the student support team need to work together to encourage healthy social media interaction and teach young kids its essential use,” further elaborates Lacon.

The age of social media and online friendships is here to stay. There will always be a new app the ‘kids’ will flock to, and children will always find new ways to outsmart their parents while trying to gain as much autonomy to use these apps. Despite this, it might be up to parents to find ways not only to curtail social media use but to enrich their children’s ‘real life’ experiences. Lacon puts it best when he says, “despite the advancement of technology and social media’s convenience, personal connection to people is still important. There is always a need for people to get along and experience the world. Everything will go back to its routine, social media and technology will still be there, and people will surely do the things they miss doing with their family and friends.”

KEEP READING: #Parenting: Parents From Different Cultural Backgrounds Share Their Views of Tech at Home

Photos: Pexels

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 November issue