Dr. DeGarmo has been a foster parent for 11 years, now, and he and his wife have had over 30 children come through their home.??Dr. DeGarmo wrote his dissertation on fostering, entitled Responding to the Needs of Foster Children in Rural Schools.??He is a speaker and trainer on many topics about the foster care system, and travels around the nation delivering passionate, dynamic, energetic, and informative presentations.??Dr. DeGarmo is the author of the highly inspirational and bestselling book?Fostering Love: One Foster Parent?s Story.??He also writes for a number of publications and newsletters, both here in the United States, and overseas.?
We are so fortunate that Dr. DeGarmo will be contributing his wealth of knowledge and experience on foster care topics here at the FSA blog.
Fostering Hope: A Foster Care Column
As a foster and adoptive parent myself, I recognize the importance of technology in the lives of children. Indeed, technology is everywhere, and for our children today, it is a large part of their lives. Yet, social network sites, such as Facebook, have opened up a whole new world for those involved in the foster care system. Foster children, foster parents, birth parents, and social workers have all felt the impact of this powerful technological communication tool. Social Networking allows foster children to stay connected to friends and family members from all over. For these children in need, it can very much be a benefit as they stay in touch with birth parents and biological family members.
These sites open up a new way to communicate with birth parents and other biological family members. Facebook and other networking sites allow foster children and birth parents to remain in day to day contact, as it allows the foster child the opportunity to continue in a relationship that is important to him. This may help in allowing him to heal from the separation from his family.?
Social networking does present problems to foster children, though. Some caseworkers may prefer that contact with birth parents be limited. Yet, with social networking, this can be most difficult, and almost impossible, for foster parents to monitor. More and more birth parents are contacting their foster children through social networking sites, many times against the wishes of both foster parents and caseworkers. Birth parents are able to openly communicate with their child unsupervised, which can lead to false accusations as well as false promises from the birth parents. Indeed, social networking is a whole new world for all involved in foster care; a world that can be both wonderful and dangerous at the same time. ?There is the chat component of Facebook,? one caseworker noted, ?where a child and their parent could essentially have a conversation that no one would be able to monitor unless they were sitting right next to the child, which is a grave concern.? Case managers would have to be familiar with the birth parent's Facebook page before the foster child was to even access it. Along with this, there are many reports of foster parents being bullied and stalked by the birth parents through social networking. Another caseworker suggested that, ?I am personally aware of inappropriate things that parents post on their Facebook pages that would not be appropriate for their children to view. Not only might there be inappropriate information and comments on there, there also might be inappropriate photos and other harmful content that the children do not need to be exposed to, not just from the birth parents, but from the internet, in general.? Indeed, social networking is a whole new world for all involved in foster care; a world that can be both wonderful and dangerous at the same time. Much more information and research is needed before the social network explosion engulfs foster care.
Next month, we shall look at some strategies to aid our foster children in this new world of technology.
Dr. DeGarmo can be contacted by email, through his Facebook page, ?or at his website.
Source: http://familiessupportingadoption.blogspot.com/2012/10/foster-care-and-social-networking.html
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