Beaufort Delta students learn social media safety
'What you post on the Internet is there forever'
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Monday, December 21, 2015
BEAUFORT DELTA
Navigating the waters of social media can be tricky, but students in Inuvik and the Beaufort Delta are learning how best to do it.
Students in five communities learned how what they say on social media can affect them in real life 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 most students were surprised to learn that warrants for illegal activities are served to the owner of the phone and that's not necessarily the person using it - it'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 said the workshops weren't meant to scare children but to make them aware that what they post online can have real-life consequences.
"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 asked students how they would feel if someone walked up to them on the street and asked to follow them, and all of the students said this would be unacceptable behaviour.
But the same situation online is commonplace.
McConnell said for all the advantages of living in small communities, children who grow up in big cities may have more street smarts when it comes to online behaviour 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."
