Technology & Social Media Information for parents CENTRAL UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

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Poppy Henderson
6 years ago
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1 Technology & Social Media Information for parents CENTRAL UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

DID YOU KNOW? 95% of teens (13-17) use the Internet? 76% of teens use Instagram? 75% of teens use Snapchat? 66% of teens use Facebook?

40% of teens use messaging apps like Kik, WhatsApp or Line on a smartphone?

Among Twitter users aged 12-17, 64% made their tweets public?

2 DID YOU KNOW? 95% of teens (13-17) use the Internet? 76% of teens use Instagram? 75% of teens use Snapchat? 66% of teens use Facebook? 47% of teens use Twitter? 91% of teens use their text tool on their mobile phones? 40% of teens use messaging apps like Kik, WhatsApp or Line on a smartphone? The average teen has approximately 300 friends on Instagram or Facebook and 79 followers on Twitter? Among Twitter users aged 12-17, 64% made their tweets public? 19% of teen users have posted things they regret, including photos, videos, status updates, tweets, or comments? Only 18% of young adults claim they are comfortable with what their friends post about them online, and 32% say that the information about them online is what they choose for the public to see? **Info from Department of Homeland Security & NORC at the University of Chicago

At least 10 students who were accepted to Harvard University s incoming Class of 2021 had their acceptances

3 Colleges look at social media profiles 10 students accepted to Harvard lose their admission over offensive social media posts. At least 10 students who were accepted to Harvard University s incoming Class of 2021 had their acceptances rescinded for sharing memes that were either sexually explicit or racially insensitive.

4 Student-athletes lose scholarships

Vault apps Vault apps (aka Ghost or Hidden apps) look and function like a normal app (like a calculator app), but once you enter a passcode inside the app, you unlock the true purpose of the app:

5 Vault apps Vault apps (aka Ghost or Hidden apps) look and function like a normal app (like a calculator app), but once you enter a passcode inside the app, you unlock the true purpose of the app: typically to store inappropriate content. Teens and tweens have used these apps to hide sexting, nude photos and other content.

6 SCHOOL THREATS (Criminal Threats) Any threat against another person, group or school, whether made on school property or on social media, has dire consequences. Students throughout Fresno County who have made threats on school property or on social media have been expelled and incarcerated. They have a permanent misdemeanor or felony on their records. PENAL CODE Section 422 A criminal threat is when a person specifically threatens to kill or inflict great bodily injury either verbally, electronically, or in writing and the victim experiences sustained fear for their safety or for the safety of their immediate family. Prosecutors may file it as either a misdemeanor or a felony. If you are convicted of the misdemeanor, you face up to one year in a county jail. If you are convicted of the felony, you face up to four years in the California state prison. Using a dangerous or deadly weapon increases your sentence by one year.

7 FRESNO COUNTY PSA The Fresno Police Department, Central Unified and Fresno Unified partnered on this PSA as a result of students making social media threats against schools. com/watch?v=28xrt_ uphju

8 BE AWARE OF WHAT YOUR KIDS POST ONLINE Understand the cyber risks kids face when using social media. Talk to your kids about the following risks: 1. What they are posting: Talk to your kids about the info they post online. Many of them don t understand the damage they could do to their reputation or future prospects with unkind or angry posts, and compromising photos or videos. There is no delete button on the internet because even if something is deleted, chances are someone still saw it. Ensure your kids are NOT sharing or posting: Sensitive information: Anything that can help a person steal your child s identity or find them such as their/your full name, Social Security number, address, birthdate, phone number, or place of birth. Compromising content: This includes photos or status updates that may damage your child s reputation or future prospects. Unkind or angry content: This includes anything malicious directed at themselves, another person, an institution, aswell asopinions that are probably better left unshared. Location: Many social media platforms have location tracking, allowing your teens to check in and broadcast their locations, or automatically adding their location to photos and posts.

9 BE AWARE OF WHAT YOUR KIDS POST ONLINE 2. Who they are connecting with: Social media allows kids to connect with their friends, but there is also a risk of connecting with someone they do not know or who is only pretending to be a kid. 3. What level of privacy they are using: Many social media platforms have privacy settings that allow users to limit who sees their content. There are also settings for location tracking and geo-tagging of photos or statuses. 4. Educate your kids about digital citizenship by educating yourself: Learn about the latest social media and technological changes, apps, and trends. Your kids are probably 5 steps ahead of you!

10 SIMPLE TIPS FOR PARENTS 1. Talk to your children. Help your children understand the importance of owning their digital lives and only sharing things that will not put them in danger, negatively affect their future, or harm others. 2. Emphasize the concept of credibility to teens: not everything they see on the internet is true and people on the internet may not be who they appear to be. 3. Watch for changesin behavior. If your child suddenly avoids the computer/phone/tablet, it may be a sign they re being bullied or stalked online. 4. Review security settings and privacy policies for the social media sites kids frequent. These settings are frequently updated so check back regularly. 5. Consider following your children on social media. Some parents have a rule that in order for their children to have social media accounts, the parents are allowed to follow them. Unfortunately, some teens find ways around it by creating other fake accounts and hiding them in vault/ghost apps.

11 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS APPLE PHONES For families with iphones, parents can screen apps before they are downloaded to their children s iphones with a feature called Ask to Buy. By turning on Ask to Buy, whenever a child wants to download an app (whether free or paid), it sends a request to the parent s iphone, and the parent can then approve or deny the download. The steps, which are available on Apple s website: involve setting up each iphone with Family Sharing and then enabling Ask to Buy for the child s iphone. ANDROID PHONES For families with Android devices, parents can enable parental controls inside Google Play s app store to allow children to download apps only at a certain maturity level. For stricter controls, parents can download an app called AppLock on the child s device and lock down any app that they suspect to be a vault app with a PIN code.

12 RESOURCES Parental-control apps for smartphones can also help kids understand the value of limits in a digital world while also preventing them from accessing adult content or texting with strangers **Info and sources from the Department of Homeland Security

SOCIAL MEDIA & DIGITAL POLICY

SOCIAL MEDIA & DIGITAL POLICY Staff Use Guidelines November 2017 Table of Contents Purpose... 3 Applicable... 3 Social Media Personal Use... 3 Social media etiquette... 4 Linking the HSE to your personal