Cyber Safety & Social Media

What you need to know

Agenda �  Social Media Sites (Overview)

�  Why Social Media Is Important, Specifically Facebook/Twitter

�  Tools For Monitoring Internet Activity

�  Wrap Up

�  Q&A

Popular Social Media Platforms

What We Are Focusing On Tonight

Why Is Social Media Important?

�  Today’s society is becoming more socially focused with each passing day. Social media is not simply a passing trend; it is here to stay.

�  Now more than ever, students need to understand the basics of social media and how it can affect their future both negatively and positively. A strong or weak social media presence now affects both college admissions and the workforce.

�  Professionals look for people who know how to stay both current and professional in the middle of a social age.

Five Important Things To Teach Our Kids About Social Media

�  Online Reputation

�  Privacy

�  Keep Connections

�  Establish Your Expertise

�  Stay Updated

Why Is Facebook Important?

There are three major benefits of Facebook as an educational tool: •  Providing social support - It builds a community

•  Promoting collaboration - An open platform to comment and share ideas •  Profiling students - Reveals personality and characteristics of a student

Student Posts “So congratulations on Sage Day for forming the Gay/Straight Alliance Club.. I want to talk about an event of interest that is coming up soon.”

“If you get that alumni newsletter off the ground, I think you should include a Sage Day memory that was written by a former student. I think that would be awesome.”

“Rochelle Park Music Department Update: Less than 7 weeks until the Spring Arts Festival! The Music & Arts Departments have been working feverishly to decorate and perfect the songs for this awesome show. We hope you are as excited as we are!”

Why Is Twitter Important?

�  Twitter may have started off as a fun social media site for keeping up with friends and sharing updates about daily life, but it’s become much more than that for many users over the past few years as the site has evolved and grown.

�  These days, Twitter is a powerhouse for marketing, communication, business, and education, letting people from around the world collaborate, share ideas, and gain exposure.

�  Bottom line- This is where people are getting their news.

The Concerns…

With social media and internet activity on the rise, there is growing concern about how to monitor it.

As parents we want to…

�  Know and understand what our kids are doing

�  Protect them if their peers are misusing social media at our children’s expense

�  Address the impacts of certain posts

Social Media Misuses

Facebook �  Bullying �  “Cat Fishing” �  Abuse of Privileges

Twitter �  Disturbing Content �  Bullying

Cyberbullying Parents and kids can prevent cyberbullying. Together, they can explore safe ways to use technology.

•  Be aware of what your kids are doing

•  Establish rules about technology use

•  Understand school rules

Be aware of what your children are doing

Have a sense of what sites your kids visit online & learn about them, don’t be afraid to try them yourself

Ask for their passwords, but tell them you’ll only use them in case of an emergency

Encourage your kids to tell you immediately if they or someone they know is being cyberbullied and Explain that you will not take away their computers if they confide in you

Make sure to “friend” and “follow” your kids on social media sites or ask another trusted adult to do so

Establish Rules About Technology Use

�  Establish rules about appropriate use of computers.

�  Help them be smart about what they post or say.

�  Encourage kids to think about who they want to see the information and pictures they post online.

�  Tell kids to keep their passwords safe and not share them with friends. Sharing passwords can compromise their control over their online identities and activities.

Understand School Rules

Sage Day’s Technology And Media Policy:

“Students are responsible for appropriate behavior on computer networks…Administrators may review files and communications to maintain system integrity and ensure that users are using the system responsibly. Users should not expect that files stored on Sage Day servers will always be private.” (page 42)

“Sage Day is in compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act and certifies that procedures have been put in place to ensure that students do not have access to inappropriate matter on the Internet and the web. Measures have been taken to restrict students access to materials harmful to them and not disseminate personal identification information.” (page 44)

*We encourage you to review our policy more in depth, we have provided the Student Handbook on our website.

Students Social Networking Guidelines Students may be utilizing social networks (wiki, Google docs, Edmodo) to engage in collaboration and peer topic sharing in order to implement essential 21st century skills. Therefore, students must adhere to the following guidelines:

�  Will not use inappropriate language, fighting words or provoke anyone

�  Will try to use correct grammar and spelling and not “chat” language

�  Will only give constructive criticism

�  Will only use the name assigned by the teacher

�  Will not give out any personal information about myself or anyone else

�  Will be responsible for anything posted in my name

Cyber Safety Tools

Parents have many tools at their disposal that they can utilize to help monitor their child’s activity.

Tools we will be focusing on are:

•  Key Loggers

•  Google

•  Setting up time restrictions

•  Setting up blocking restrictions

•  Monitoring Software

Key Loggers

What is a Key logger? A key logger is a hardware device or a software program that records the real time activity of a computer user including the keyboard keys they press.

How it works:

-You purchase the software and download it to your computer

- Open the program and plug in the USB to the back of your computer

- A complete list of all activity will appear on your screen that you can sort through to see exactly what keys were pressed and what sites were visited.

Google �  Type your child’s name into Google to see if

anything is being said about them.

�  Drag a photo into the Google search engine to see where their pictures are being posted.

Setting Up Time Restrictions

In Your Parental Controls Setting: The Time Limits tab –This tool is very useful if you want to limit the amount of time your kids spend on the computer during the week and/or the weekend. Just use the scroll bars to adjust the number of hours. You will be able to set time limits to: -Weekdays -Weekends -Bedtime -Other specific hours throughout the day

Setting Up Blocking Restrictions

In Your Parental Control Setting

The Web tab –This is an important section of the parental controls as it allows you to block and allow certain websites.

�  Now, you can go one of two ways: you can let Apple’s parental controls “try” and limit access to adult intended websites, or you can create your own list of allowed/blocked sites.

�  Click ‘try to limit access to adult website automatically’ and click customize. This brings up a box where you can type in whichever sites you deem appropriate or inappropriate for your child.

Monitoring Software �  Monitoring software scans the major social

networks to find discussions in which your kid participates that may have inappropriate language or talk about drugs, sex, violence, alcohol and bullying.

�  It will send you email notifications and provide you with clear reports on activity and who your child is communicating with.

Recommended software:

•  Avira- www.avira.com

Wrap Up

�  Social Media and the Internet comes with responsibility, which is why it is important to educate yourself on the sites your children are using so you can guide them in the right direction.

�  Parents can monitor their children by using the tools mentioned in this presentation, “following” on Twitter and “Friending” on Facebook.

�  Don’t be hesitant to have the conversation to request passwords and login information.

Resources �  Quib.ly – An online community where parents can

ask questions about social media, technology and other topics relating to their children.

�  connectsafely.org- Provides a parent’s guide to Facebook.

�  edudemic.com- The goal of Edudemic is to connect teachers, administrators and students, with technology resources.

�  Facebook Family Safety Center

Questions?

We will be happy to take questions in public at this time or in private after our Q&A portion has concluded.

Thank you for attending!