Reddit is a rather unique site that blends the idea of a social network with news, discussion forums and various other media. The site is broken down into a huge number of categories covering every topic imaginable. Each category is treated as a community and users can submit content for others to see and comment on. This can take the form of links to existing online content or user-generated text and image-based submissions. Submitted content can not only be commented on by others, but also rated using the upvote/downvote system.
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What parents need to know about REDDIT
SUB"REDDITS Each community (known as a sub-reddit) has its own set of moderators and its own set of rules, opening up the opportunity for your child to see inappropriate content or something they may find upsetting. Almost every subreddit is user-run, with practically no involvement from reddit employees. Anyone can submit content to a sub-reddit and it’s not filtered. scheme that gives ‘extra features to improve the reddit experience,’ such as no adverts, custom themes and avatars, and the ability to create Reddit ‘secret societies.’ Payment costs $3.99 a month (around £3), or $29.99 a year (£23). Users can reward each other for content they post by giving Reddit Gold, a process dubbed ‘gilding.’ Reddit Gifts is a giant online gift exchange for sending a gift to a randomly assigned user. Reddit recommends that you spend around $20 on a gift, so there is a concern that your child could rack up expenses if unmonitored. REDDIT GOLD AND GIFTS Reddit Gold is a premiummembership
ADULT ANDNSFWCONTENT While there aremoderators in place for sub-reddits, they are not necessarily going to ensure that the sort of content you wouldn't want your child to see is banned. Reddit is concernedwith free speech and light-touchmoderation, so even themost open-minded of peoplemay find deeply offensive content. Reddit generally provides a lot of leeway in the type of content which is acceptable. Somemembers choose vulgar usernames, while some communities have controversial or rude titles. Some content or communities are markedwith‘NSFW’(Not Safe ForWork) whichmeans they may contain nudity, pornography, or profanity; it is easy for users to claimto be aged 18 and over to view this content. REDDIT LINGO Children and teenagers oftenmanage tomaskwhat they are talking about bywrapping it up in language their parents do not understand.While Reddit is certainly not used just by children and teenagers, like any online community there are words, phrases and abbreviations thatmay seem impenetra- ble to start with, such asTL;DR: Too Long; Didn't Read and ITT: In this thread.
CONTENT BIAS AND FAKE NEWS
Subreddits are particularly prone to bias - to the extent that some of them could be seen as propaganda. Reddit has been mentioned as one of the platforms used to promote Russian propaganda, for example. Other news stories can be completely false and not based on any evidence at all – known as fake news - these are written and posted online deliberately to create an impact. Both are nearly impossible to avoid. TROLLS AND STRANGERS Globally, millions of people of all ages use the Reddit platform to discuss any topic imaginable from just about every possible viewpoint. Although people can find users who have similar interests, some will choose to abuse the platform. Talking with strangers can lead to trolling and abuse, or your child encountering unsavoury subjects. Reddit users can also send each other private messages, so there is a danger of your child receiving inappropriate or unwanted communication.
Top Tips Parents for
REPORTING CONTENT To a certain extent it can be useful to learn to just walk away from conversations that take a turn for the worse, but this is not always possible. Learn how to use the blocking feature and teach your child how to use it if someone becomes a problem. Beneath all content and comments that have been
LEARN THE LINGO It is impossible to provide a guide to all the vocabulary and language used on Reddit - it is something that is constantly evolving. There are some words and abbreviations that have become common Internet parlance (such as NSFW). If you want to check anything which your child has accessed (which can be seen in the ‘Recently viewed links’ panel on the front page of the site), be prepared to do a little searching if you encounter things you are unable to make sense of. There’s Short of blocking access to Reddit completely, or blocking individual sub-reddits, it's difficult to police your child's use of the site without physically monitoring what they are doing. It is important to let your child know that there are unpleasant people out there and they need to take care about sharing personal information. Should someone start to be a harassment, you can control who can send you private messages and add users to a blocked list by simply clicking on the ‘Block User’ button. probably a sub-reddit all about acronyms! BLOCKING STRANGERS
REPORT
TURN SAFE BROWSING MODE ON AND ADULT CONTENT OFF Some sub-reddits are marked as ‘adult-only’ and in order to access them users must be (or at least say they are) 18 or over. Within your child's user profile, it is possible to indicate that they are not 18 and this will block access to some sub-reddits, but certainly not everything you might consider to be unsuitable. Firstly, to protect them from unsuitable content, check that they have used their correct age when signing up. Secondly, turn off ‘adult content’ which will disable adult and NSFW (not safe for work) content from showing in the feed and search results. If you are happy to leave ‘adult content’ turned on, we highly recommend turning on ‘safe browsing mode;’ this blurs thumbnails and media preview for anything labelled NSFW (not safe for work).
submitted by other users, there is an option to report it. Advise your child to report any form of abuse or harassment that they encounter on the platform. It is a good way to alert moderators to the user and hopefully, action will be taken against them. SPOT FAKE NEWS Encourage your child to read around topics and not to take something at face value. Just because something is said by someone on Reddit, in no way does this mean that it is true. Remember that the links people post and the comments they leave will cover the full range of political views, intelligence levels and opinions.
SOURCES: https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/827zqc/in_response_to_recent_reports_about_the_integrity/, https://www.reddit.com, https://www.reddit.com/gold/about
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