We spend a lot of time talking about how children should act online; digital citizenship or online etiquette. Over the last few years, the need to teach children about appropriate online behavior has fallen on the schools. Thankfully, many schools have started a digital citizenship program. Parents have a part in this, and a responsibility to their children, and every other parent’s children that show up in their child’s social media posts.

In my book Parenting in a Digital World, and in my cyber safety seminars, I show parents the various threats our children face online. The greatest threats often appear when our children use public or open social networks. A public network allows anyone access to whatever your child is posting online. Parents must know about every online social media account their children have, and if it is public or private. A private account will block strangers from accessing your child’s posts, which include videos, pictures, and their personal information.

This leads me to the central problem with most children who use social media. They want to share their images, videos, and ideas with as many people as possible. They want a lot of “likes.” The social media site, like Musical.ly, is literally begging them to share their musical creations with everyone. Here is where theory and personal experience collide.

Last week, my wife asked me if I knew about this social media app, Musical.ly, that our neighbor kid, Daren, is using. I said, “Yes, in fact I just wrote a blog post about it (read it here). It’s fine as long as it is private.” My wife replies, “Well, your 12-year-old son, Zach, is in his videos, you may want to look into it.”

I stepped into the garage and as usual, I saw Zach and Darin playing Mindcraft on the Xbox. I asked Darin if he was making music videos with Zach on Musical.ly. Darin said, “Yes.” I asked him if his account was public or private. He replied, “Public.” “Wh ...