This topic contains 9 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by 
Corey McCarren 8 years, 3 months ago.
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Certain topics in public education have become more controversial over the last few years. Parents and the public wonder whether it’s the place of the public schools to teach sex ed or driver’s ed, and sometimes they even debate the material in social studies and science curricula.
But what about social media? As in sex education, where’s the line between parents’ and school’s responsibility? Should students be required to take a course in online safety? What topics should be covered? Should they wait until high school or do it sooner?
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I don’t think that online safety could be a controversial issue is the main difference, so it’s the responsibility of both. The focus would probably be on stopping bullying and being cautious about what is posted online. A lot of high-school age students post some pretty offensive things right in public, and that’s not gonna help to keep with those habits after high school.
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IMO
it should be first exposed to the students at the earliest grade (pre-school?!?!). All education needs to be “age specific” and the social media education should be no different. If we lived in a perfect world the parents would work very closely with the “teachers” insuring that all education was tailored to the individual student but alas…
We expect our children/students to be courteous, and to be able to get help when put in harms way. I don’t believe that it would be much of stretch to include online safety/social networking skills in the process of training very young people.
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This is topical- any child particularly those who are in the company of peers who have a cell phone merits training. I learned last month of 5 th grader with a ringtone generating expletives. A little irritating to be sure- however the administrators when they sequestered the phone they found that they needed it disabled by the student. In the process they saw photos that are not what one would imagine a 5 th grader to have. Mind you transmission of such photos or receipt of some photos may then compel the minors involved to interact in a legal arena. I am compelled to support social media training for young children now. Their training wheels of texting catapults them into some heady social media interactions rapidly.
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in a resturant last week, saw a preschooler using “moms” smartphone to “play games” on facebook!
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I would say the sooner the better, there are a lot of of line preditors out there.
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I just saw a tweet from Steve Radick about this last week – ref’d this article: http://t.co/v2KhouT8
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IMHO parents need to be required to take a course in online safety and they need to watch their kids! While I have no kids if I get one more call from my relatives asking me to watch their children online and tell them if anything is up because I’m social media savvy I am going to scream. I did a webinar and a face to face with certain offenders e.g. parents and made them friend their children. I did this all without ratting out my cousins. Hey look at the end of the day while I may not have crazy drunk pictures up I listen to the same music and check in at the same clubs and just may see your child there too so I really don’t have the time or the inclination to watch your child because I’m too busy watching myself! You digg?!
Signed –
Single for a reason
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I think the on line safety lessons should begin as soon as a child begins to learn the computer. Just as you teach your child about the dangers of strangers in public you should teach about strangers being on line. Having it taught in school should just be a reinforcement of what is taught in the home.
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I certainly think young kids (elementary age) should be taught about “stranger danger” online. This is a generation that is going to grow up without knowing what the world was like before web 2.0 … and they should realize that everything you post, no matter what, stays online forever. I think there are a lot of teens out there right now that don’t realize that the pictures they think are “funny” could come back to haunt them later, but I think these kids also don’t understand that posting their home address or phone number can get them into other kinds of trouble, as well. As with most things, schools and parents should work together to keep kids safe.
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