Teaching Safe Use of Social Media in Your Classroom

In an article written by the daily mail it indicates that more than half of children begin using social media by the age of 10. That means the students in grade 4 have started or are beginning to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. At this age they may not know the do’s and don’ts of the online world. Later in this article it stated that only 32% of parents felt ‘very confident’ with assisting their children with staying safe online. Knowing that more than 50% of parents either don’t discuss the safety of the online world or don’t feel comfortable with it is pretty astounding.

To make social media safer for children teachers need to become familiar with the sites themselves so they can teach the students appropriate mannerisms of social media. But we also need to get the parents involved and provide opportunity to discuss how they can help their children and show them what they are looking for when their children are using social media.

As a teacher teaching older students, your class is likely well aware of the dangers of Social Media. However, I think it is important to have a discussion with them in regards to what their personal boundaries are when it comes to sharing personal information on Social Media.  For example you could ask if anyone would send someone, they didn’t know a picture of themselves, or if they have ever tweeted or written a Facebook post detailing their plans for an evening, or have they ever allowed someone they didn’t know to follow them on Twitter or Facebook.  These questions would serve as a good baseline judgment in determining what your student’s personal boundaries might be.  From here you can tailor the rest of the discussion to talk about some of the dangers that might be involved in answering yes to any of those questions.  Furthermore, you could have students share personal stories about a potentially dangerous encounter they have had using these sites and how they handled them.  Also, within this discussion, it is important for the teacher to make the students aware that they are leaving a digital footprint when they post, tweet and share. This means the students need to realize that the digital footprint is something that is going to stick with them. They need to realize the ramifications of sharing something that may be inappropriate later in life.

        Another useful strategy might be to show them real life examples of what can happen when Social Media is used recklessly.  There are countless news stories of teens who shared the wrong kind of personal information on the internet and how this was then used by someone to harm them.  Although, these are tragic stories it is important that we learn from them and ensure that we are protecting ourselves from a similar situation.    

Authored by Jon  & Emily