Apply real world smarts online
Students and parents gets lessons in social media behaviour
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Thursday, December 17, 2015
INUVIK
Drawing the line when it comes to personal information and online activity can be tricky, but students in Inuvik and the Beaufort Delta are now equipped with some tools to do just that.
Students in five communities learned how close the real world is to their online lives earlier this month in workshops with social media expert Jesse Miller from Vancouver.
Organizer Ali McConnell said many of the students were surprised by a lot of what they were told,
"What you post on the Internet is there forever," she said. "Snapchat, Instagram, they keep those photos on their servers."
East Three Secondary School counsellor Paula Guy said students were shocked to learn about the intricacies of phone ownership. For instance, she said most students were surprised to learn that warrants for illegal activities are served to the owner of the phone and that's whoever is paying for it.
"It's something parents need to be aware of," she said. "They need to set parameters and to have conversations with their kids about what they're doing online."
McConnell the workshops weren't meant to scare children into better behaviour, but instead to make them aware of the realities and consequences of what they are posting online.
She said it wasn't about discouraging anyone for using social media, but rather encouraging them to use it in a safe and positive way.
"It's not specific to the Beaufort Delta," she said. "Kids don't have a good understanding of what they're giving away freely. In the Beaufort Delta, we have kids growing up in small communities, where they know everyone, and they get online and have the world at their fingertips, and that can be dangerous."
The facilitator used the example of someone walking up to you on the street and asking to follow you, which the students all found to be unacceptable behaviour.
But the same situation online is commonplace.
McConnell said that for all the advantages of living in small communities, in this particular case, children who grow up in big cities may have more street smarts and might be more aware of what they are putting out to the world.
"It's about digital citizenship," said Guy. "The reality is these devices aren't going anywhere, and they are great tools, but we have to understand their power and how to use them responsibly."
