Why You Need to Rein In Your Babysitter’s Social Media
Parents are increasingly demanding contracts that restrict when kids’ caregivers can be on their phone and what they can do online.
The good old days.
Photographer: William Vanderson/Hulton ArchiveSilicon Valley parents are now asking nannies to sign contracts banning them from using their phones for private purposes on the job, according to the New York Times. The report says that other moms will sometimes “out” caregivers by posting pictures of them using their devices. That may seem a little too controlling, but every parent would do well to require a nanny to agree to restrictions on social media use as a condition of employment.
The first reason to have an agreement is that parents need assurances that caregivers won’t be on their phones when they should be watching the children. Distractions from phones don’t just deprive kids of attention. They can also be dangerous. According to the Centers for Disease Control, accidents causing injuries to children under age 5 went up by 10 percent between 2006-2007 and 2011-2012. A study by the Yale University researcher Craig Palsson found that, as the iPhone 3G network expanded into new cities during that timeframe, emergency room visits among children under age 5 increased in those areas. This wasn’t a coincidence, according to Palsson, who argued that “the expansion of smartphones can explain almost the entire increase in child injuries.”