Financial Responsibility and Social Media

Let's talk about financial responsibility on social media. A lot of people on social media are selling something, and while most are perfectly legitimate, how some are selling might be financially irresponsible or downright unethical. A good amount of content on social media is sponsored, meaning the platform is running ads, or an influencer/celebrity is being paid to promote a product. Again, most of these products and services are sold above board, but you still have to be careful.

One example of legitimate but "read the fine print" is a celebrity selling stocks or crypto. These are both unprotected/uninsured investments and it is possible to lose everything you invested. Usually there is some kind of quick, one sentence disclaimer, but is that really enough? It's easy to miss this if you aren't paying close attention. The bottom line is it's great to check out whatever platform or site the celebrity recommends if you are interested, and see for yourself if they have the proper disclaimers prominently displayed.

An example of probably legitimate is an ad or post for a product or service that is either fully explained/priced on the page, or takes you to a site where the product/service is fully explained as well as the pricing. While requiring info like a name and email address so the company can send you something free and/or contact you in the future is generally safe, you can check their privacy policy to see if they share information with third parties or not, and you should be able to unsubscribe at any time.

When making a purchase, you'll have to enter details like your card number and expiration date, shipping address, etc. Most websites, including this one, use third party payment processors such as Stripe or Paypal, so the people who run the site won't have any access to that info. Phone numbers and addresses when you are not purchasing something can also be legitimate. However, I won't give those out to someone to get something for free, so I would never ask anyone else to provide those details.

Please discuss this with your kids and feel free to drop an email to info@moneyisnotadirtyword.com with what they said, any takeaways, and/or any questions you may have.