As more local schools investigate inappropriate texting by underage students, a parenting expert shares five important ways to make sure your child understands the consequences.

Natalie Blais is a parenting strategist and the founder of A Passionate Parent, a website dedicated to helping parents teach their children tot become social media savvy. After Valley Central High School and Marlboro Middle School were both recently hit with underage sexting scandals, The Boris & Robyn Show invited Natalie to discuss ways to educate children about the long-lasting consequences of their online actions.

Blais has five golden rules that parents should teach their children in order to make them good "digital citizens".

Remind them that the internet is forever
No matter what password protections or privacy settings you may, someone somewhere will store anything you put online forever. Most children live in the moment and don't consider consequences of their actions years, or even decades, down the road. Educating children about how spur of the moment choices can affect the rest of their lives is an important role parents must play.

Educating children about how spur of the moment choices can affect the rest of their lives is an important role parents must play.

Only post or text what you'd want grandma to see
Blais recommends that parents explain to teens that they should only share with others what they would be comfortable showing to a grandparent. This drives home the idea that no matter who the intended recipient is, it's very simple to have messages or screen captures forwarded to just about anyone. If you don't want your grandparent to eventually see it, it's best not to send it.

Be empathetic to others
Most kids will forward an embarrassing or compromising photo of someone else without giving it a thought. Blais believes that parents need to teach kids to stand up for each other and stop being bystanders. Sharing an inappropriate image of someone else only perpetuates the problem. A good way to get this message across is to remind teens that if someone is sharing the image with you then it's likely the would also share an image of you with someone else.

Teach children that there are real consequences to their actions
Too often parents will attribute incidents of sexting or other inappropriate online activity to the fact that "kids will be kids." Blais believes that making excuses for stupid decisions made by teens is simple agism. Parents need to facilitate their children who are facing real consequences for real decisions.

Give children back their dignity
Adults who think "parenting" is making their child hold up an embarrassing sign or giving them an "old man haircut" are taking away their dignity. Parents are on social media,. constantly commenting about every aspect of their child's life and posting photos of them that they most likely didn't give permission for. Teaching by example will help your kids understand that everyone deserves dignity

Here is our full interview with Natalie Blais:

For more information on these "golden rules" parenting expert, Natalie Blais, offers an informational sheet on her website that parents can download to help instigate a conversation with teens about sexting and social media without things "getting weird."

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