Keeping kids safe on social media

In today's schools, students' social lives are lived on social media sites.  We as teachers can also use these platforms to our educational benefit but the students' safety is paramount. These sites can be used effectively for intermediate and high school students, but will be used differently than they may be used to in their personal lives. Note* It's still be important to teach the safe use of social media to younger students despite the minimum age requirements for usage. 

On the website Edudemic.com (http://www.edudemic.com/guides/the-teachers-guide-to-keeping-students-safe-online/) an article about keeping kids safe online talks about boundaries.  It makes the discussion about personal boundaries the first step to safety.  I loved that it tells teachers to frame the discussion as a life skill as opposed to making it directly about online safety issues.  I agree that setting your personal boundaries in life, sticking to them and expecting that they be respected by others is at the core of appropriate social media use. As a life skill, learning to set boundaries will translate to safety in all other aspects of life.

Another strategy I though was great from Edudemic is to teach students how social media and texts work.  Students might think that what they put out is sent directly to their intended audience and is deleted when  they delete it. Snapchat specifically gives students the idea that what they send is deleted once viewed. Kidshealth.org suggests teaching students that their info is stored permanently and once on the internet it is out of their control might encourage more thought to be put into their online postings.  Teachers could have students send paper texts to each other that are filtered through you. You 'make copies' before passing them to the intended recipient, and then have them 'delete the messages' by ripping the paper. The teacher will then demonstrate that there is still a copy stored away.

Kidshealth.org (http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/social-media-smarts.html#)  also mentions that students are only thinking about the present and not how their actions online will influence their future. It may be helpful to discuss their plans for the future and that their future employers will still be able to find their online posts and follow their digital footprint.  I like this idea for intermediate students especially because they are at an age where they are not thinking as seriously yet about their future and as such may be making frivolous decisions online.