I have an ongoing conversation with mine about the things he finds online. We talk about how people try to benefit from appearing "rich" online. We talk about how people have problems in their lives and find things to blame and rant about online. We talk about how people you don't know can try to get things from you or make you think a certain way.

He even started using the term "clickbait" before I even taught it to him. These kids are savy. I think the biggest thing we can do for them is to help them understand how to contextualize what they're engaging with because they don't get to grow up in the "before" and "after" worlds that elder millennials did.

And frankly, I see that my kid is just as saturated in propaganda from his public school as he is from online media. So far, in parallel to his education, school seems to be running one giant ad for the US armed forces.

Sit down with them and go through tiktok or insta. Point out dark patterns, bad content.

Answer their questions truthfully. Sometimes the truthful answer is "I don't know".

I had the internet for a while when I turned 11.

My parents were pretty clear about what was good/bad. "you can see all sorts of stuff on the internet. But first things first, never use your real name or address. Second, we can totally see what youre looking at."

For me that worked.

For my older sister, she still tried to run off with a bloke she met off a chat room.

so you cant win them all.