Blogging 101 for Kids

Does your child have a particular passion that could be explored more through writing or photography? Blogging is a fun and educational way for kids to practice their writing and research skills while interacting with a receptive audience at the same time.

Here are a few considerations to keep in mind:

For the under 12 crowd, Kidzworld and Yoursphere offer a safe, moderated platform for kids to blog with parental consent.

Your child could also blog through a free platform like Blogger or WordPress. Make the blog private and just invite family and friends to follow. (Posts can be forwarded which is why you still want to be careful about your child revealing too much personal information. More on that below.) 

Tumblr is especially popular among teens and is a “short-form multi-media” blogging site. Members post photos, video and short posts.

Get to know blogging

If you aren’t sure how blogging works, open an account and play around with the platform. Learn how privacy settings work and familiarize yourself with the terms and conditions associated with the platform.

Explore blogs your child likes. What do you and your child find attractive about them? Take a look at other kids’ blogs. Check out the site www.blogsbykids.net.

Focus your child on a particular topic or passion. Does she love to read? Encourage her to create an online book club where she posts reviews of different books she reads. Teach her how to link to the book and the author.

If your child loves photography, have him take pictures and create a photo blog. (If he is using a smartphone to take photos, turn off geo-tags under the phone’s privacy settings.)

Safety considerations.

Naturally, your child’s safety should be top of mind.

Create a set of rules with your child before she starts blogging to discuss the type of information you are OK (and not OK) with her sharing.

Talk about the types of information she should never share like her full name (she could choose a nickname instead of using her real first name if that makes you more comfortable); year of birth; name and location of her school; address; or photos of herself.

Review her posts before they go live to make sure she isn’t inadvertently sharing information that could put her personal safety or identity at risk.

Discourage your child from using the blog like a private journal. He should ask himself questions like: Am I OK with Mom or Dad seeing this? Would I be embarrassed if my friends at school read this?

Post an email account on the site that goes to you first so you can review any correspondence that individuals are sending. This is a good way for you to show him examples of spam and the types of email that you ignore.

Set up privacy settings to approve comments before they are posted.

When is a good age to start blogging?

Whether a child is ready for blogging or any other type of social media really depends on your child and her maturity level. Many schools start kids blogging as early as second and third grades to flex their writing muscles with an encouraging audience. Educators use carefully moderated and secure sites like KidBlog.org.  

Kids are impulsive by nature. Create a digital citizenship contract with him that states in no uncertain terms your family’s beliefs about appropriate online behavior. Discuss questions like: What will you do if someone reacts negatively to one of your posts? Above all, carefully monitor his online behavior.

Another good rule of thumb is to follow the age requirements posted by the site. If your child sees you violating the rules, he’ll think it’s acceptable for him to break them too.

Photo courtesy: Clare Bloomfield/FreeDigitalPhotos.net