2. WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN SOCIAL
MEDIA TO SOMEONE WHO’S NEVER
HEARD OF IT?
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SOCIAL
MEDIA SITE/APP?
WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT RULES
THAT YOU KNOW?
4. Talk About It
TEACH YOUR FAMILY HOW TO USE YOUR
FAVOURITE APPS!
MAKE SURE YOU’RE FOLLOWING
YOUR FAMILY!
IF SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENS,
TELL AN ADULT.
5. Be a Super spy
FULL
NAME?
AGE?
HOMETO
WN?
FRIENDS
?
LOCATION
?
SCHOO
L?
BIRTH DATE?
ALWAYS SET YOUR ACCOUNTS
TO PRIVATE!
6. DM Dangers
OK
PURDY’S DMs< BACK !
What do I do if a
stranger tries to talk
to me?
BLOCK THEM!
:O
What if someone
sends me a strange
message?
Tell an adult and
always report the
message if you’re
uncomfortable.
7. One More Time...
WHY SHOULD YOU NOT PUT YOUR
FRIENDS’
NAMES IN YOUR BIO?
WHO SHOULD YOU NOT ACCEPT
PRIVATE MESSAGES FROM?
WHO SHOULD BE ABLE TO VIEW
YOUR ACCOUNTS?
*Greeting (read room, appropriate for how confident the students seem)*
*Introduction (name, what I do, silly fact to be relatable)*
Okay, so as you’ve probably guessed, I’m here to talk to you about social media. Has everybody here heard of social media? *React*
So, how would you explain social media to someone who’s never heard of it *reference dinosaur, haha, old people*? *take responses*
How many of you guys use social media then? *something about not minding you breaking the rules and to be honest* What sites or apps are your favourites to use? *take responses, react, show relatable with short comments about own experience with apps*
Now, if you guys are using all these wonderful apps, I’m sure your parents and teachers have given you a few rules for when you’re online – can you let me know what rules you have? *respond*
So from those rules, we’re gonna see how many broken rules you can see in this example profile. Can anyone guess what this profile is? This is actually based on a TikTok profile. So take a quick look at the profile on the left, and the ‘bio’ section on the right and throw some ideas at me of what this guy is doing wrong? *Take suggestions*
Answers:-
Full name (top).
Picture of self.
2007 + year 5 gives away age.
Not set to private.
Linked Instagram.
Friend’s names.
School name.
As you guys all gave me such great rules you’d heard, I’m gonna guess you get talked to about your safety online quite a bit. *naturally bounce off students here*
I’m sure you all know that most social media apps have an age limit of 13 or higher (with good reason). But you’re all growing up surrounded by these sites and apps (unlike I did because I’m very old), and I know from experience that at your age you’re going to try to push some boundaries. But if you are gonna push those boundaries, you need to keep your family in the know. If you try to hide it from them, I can guarantee they’ll probably find out anyway, so you might as well have them involved from the start, right?
So there are definitely gonna be some sites that you guys are a lot better at than your parents or carers, so you have the power here to teach them something new and fun! Show your dad how to post a boomerang on Instagram. Teach your big sister how to use post from draft on TikTok. It’s usually pretty funny, and it makes sure that they know how to keep you safe on those apps!
If your family are clued up and have all their own accounts, like I’m sure is the case for a lot of you – make sure you’re friends or following each other. Sounds lame and you do run the risk of seeing your mum’s embarrassing selfies, but it’s a really easy way to keep you a little bit safer!
This is the most important bit. If you get a strange comment or message, tell somebody. I know that sometimes this sounds scary, because you think you might get in trouble, but it’s really important to talk about anything that happens online that feels strange. And it doesn’t have to be your parents, it can be your siblings, a teacher, any other adult you trust.
So, from all those rules you guys shared earlier, you must be thinking there’s quite a bit to remember, right? *respond to reaction* I definitely understand that. Because of that, I thought I’d try to come up with one rule to make it easier. Imagine you’re a spy, working with a super secret organisation, you would want anyone to have any opportunity to find you, and I think that’s a great rule to apply to anything you post online.
Now, using what we found from the profile we saw earlier and using this new rule, which of these details do you think it’s totally safe to include on your profiles.
*read room, take responses, if there aren’t many responses prompt them by going through list. Finally, sum up that none are totally safe, and explain why for some points*
And, I’m sure you’ve heard this one a lot, but the best way to fit to this rule? Keep all your profiles private! If you’re not sure how to do this, I’ll give some guides to your teachers to help you out, ‘cause it can be a little tricky.
One of the most risky places in social media apps is the inbox, or private/direct messages. Because no one else can see the private messages you send, there’s no way for people to look out for you, so you need to be extra careful. So first of all, what do you guys do if you receive a message from someone you don’t know? *respond accordingly*
The number one rule is to always ignore messages from people you don’t know. It sounds mean, but if it’s something really important then that person should have a more direct way to contact you about it. There are ways to make sure that people who don’t know you can’t message you, like keeping your profiles private. You also can turn off message requests on a lot of apps, and again, I’ll give your teachers some guides on how to do this.
Even if you’re talking to someone you think you know and you’re safe with, always be wary. If you ever receive a message that you’re unsure about, tell an adult. With every message you receive think to yourself; “would I find this strange if someone said this to me in person?”
Before we finish up, I’m gonna get you guys to show me how much you know about what we’ve talked about today!
*go through questions, collect answers, give stickers to whoever gets them right*
As you’ve all been so good today, I’ll give some stickers to your teachers so you can all get one!
Thank you so much for being such a wonderful class. Before I go, does anyone have questions for me, at all?
*respond accordingly*
