Social Media Safety
Dear Parents:
I wanted to let you know that many of our students are out there trying social media websites, and we need to be aware of their activity online.
As you are likely aware, we have a class Twitter account. Please note this Twitter account is only accessed by children when I am in the room – they don’t have the password. Before they tweet (hit send) I always check to make sure that the tweets are: kind, helpful, or interesting. Tweets are always monitored for safety, too.
I have been made aware that several students have Facebook accounts already, and some are creating Twitter accounts. This is fine, but we need to be aware of student activity online. While I respect the many different kinds of decisions families make about internet use at home, I believe it is very important to ensure children are safe online – at school and at home. If your children have email addresses please make sure their full name is not in use. Many students use their first name only while others use nicknames or their “handles” from gaming platforms. This is the same for children who use Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.
Here are some handy tips I found from this website: Tips for Parents
- Commit all passwords to memory. Never write them down or carry them with you
- Adopt an attitude of healthy skepticism toward websites that offer prizes or giveaways. Chances are, all that’s been “won” is the opportunity to buy something you didn’t want in the first place.
- Choose a commercial online service that offers parental control features.
- Tell your children never to give out their address, telephone number, password, school name, or any other personal information.
- Make sure your children know to never agree to meet face-to-face with someone they have met online.
- Tell your children never to respond to messages that have bad words, are scary, or just seem weird.
- Tell children never send a picture of themselves to anyone without your permission
- Soon all children will be expected to be blogging on this site. They will be given a login name and password from the school board and only their first names will be in use. Here are the guidelines we follow in Burnaby Schools: GUIDELINES-Ss-SM-2014-06 You can also find this document in the page above titled, “schedule and docs”.
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Please ensure your children are not using their full names on Twitter, Instagram, Google platforms (Gmail and Google plus), and know to not divulge personal information (where they live, study, etc.)
Do let me know if you have any questions! Thank you, and have a good evening!