Some young people have never known a world without social media. Around 91 percent of 16-24 year olds use the internet for social networking.They use social media now more than ever before. Give away information without thinking or knowing the consequences. Get sucked into a world of online games and dangerous online trends. There have even been cases where suicide games were trending online, that children all encouraged each other to participate in. It can be a dark and unpredictable place.

1. Perils of Social Media
What Will They Text Next: Teen, Social Media, and Technology ?
Col Inderjeet Singh

2. Social Media - includes
THERE’S A LOT…
pick what makes sense for your objectives

3. The Screen Challenge
Take a moment to total how much time you
spend daily looking at a screen.
Then,
Take some time to estimate how much time
your teenager spends looking at a screen.

4. Kids Today…
• 78% of teens have cell phones, almost half own smartphones
• 1 in 4 are “cell-mostly” internet users
• 23% of teens have a tablet
• 81% use social networking sites
• 8-18 year olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to
using entertainment media across a typical day
• Students have a laptop and access to the internet

5. POP Quiz!

6. How to Access “Social Media”
• Home and office computers
• Laptops, netbooks & tablets
• PDAs
• Cell phones, Smartphones
• Web TV

7. Smartphone Capabilities
• Access the internet
• Photos – take, send, receive, edit
• Videos – ditto
• E-mail – synch with office and personal
accounts
• Read & edit documents
• Skype and FaceTime
• Tunes
• “Apps”

8. What Social Media Are They Using?

9. What are they posting?

10. Worldwide Statistics
• Each day Facebook users spend 10.5 billion minutes (almost 20,000 years)
online, on the social network.
• There are approximately 58 million Tweets sent per day.
• About 350 million photos are uploaded to Facebook each day.
• 95% of teens ages 12-17 are using internet. 26% are using twitter, and 11%
are on instagram.
• Students who used social networking sites while studying scored 20% lower
on tests and students who used social media had an average GPA of 3.06
versus non-users who had an average GPA of 3.82.

11. Continued…
• 88% of private sexual images have been stolen by pornography websites and posted
to social media sights.
• 29% of relationships involving a sex crime were initiated on a social networking
site.
• 25% of teens between ages 11-17 have forwarded a “sext”. 68% of girls were asked
to send a picture, whereas 42% of boys have been asked to send pictures.

12. Continued…
• In 100% of the cases, teens that are the victims of sexual predators have gone willingly to
meet with them.
• There are over 747,408 Registered Sex Offenders in the United States (2013).
• Teens are willing to meet with strangers: 16% of teens considered meeting someone
they've only talked to online and 8% have actually met someone they only knew online.
• 75% of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and
their family in exchange for goods and services.

13. Benefits of Social Media
O 1. Communication with friends and family members; can comment on life
events
O 2. Ways to update on one’s life without a phone call or a letter
O 3. Can contact people they haven’t talked to or heard from in awhile
O 4. Allows for self expression -Art, music and political ideas
5. Helps develop self-identity
6. Useful as a classroom tool

14. Cons of Social Media
• Messages can become viral in a matter of minutes
• Images and texts can remain online indefinitely (public & permanent)
• Innocent pictures can be photo-shopped into sexual pictures (public &
permanent)
• Identity theft
• Online harassment (cyberbullying) and stalking
• Messages can be taken out of context
• Impulsivity can lead to regretability
• You never really know who you are talking to

15. Risks/Dangers of Social Media
• Cyber bullying
• Geolocation
• Inappropriate content
• Sexting
• Online Predators
• Breaking Laws

16. Risks/Dangers of Social Media
• Cyber bullying
• Geolocation
• Inappropriate content
• Sexting
• Online Predators
• Breaking Laws

17. Cyberbullying

18. Cyberbullying
• Cyberbullying is deliberately using digital media to communicate false,
embarrassing, hurtful, harmful or hostile information about another
person.
• 50% of teens have reported being cyberbullied.
• Simply visiting a website that bashes a student is considered
cyberbullying.
• Only 1 in 10 teens will tell a parent if they have been cyberbullied.
• 70% of teens have witnessed cyberbullying.
• Over 20% of cyberbullying victims and 15% of “sexting” victims have
contemplated suicide.

19. Here are some tips to help you if you think you are being bullied
online.
• Tell someone. A friend, parent/carer, teacher or contact Childline.
• Ignore them. Don’t reply to emails, posts or messages and don’t
answer calls from someone who is bullying you.
• Keep the messages so you can show someone. Take a screen grab
of the page or take a picture using your phone.
• Change your number or email address and only give it out to close
friends and family. Ask them not to share it with other people.
Cyberbullying

20. • Block the bullies. Most websites will let you block people you
don’t want to hear from. Thinkuknow shows you how. You can also
block people who send nasty texts. Not all mobiles can do this, but
it’s worth checking by looking in your mobile phone’s handbook.
• Change your privacy settings on social networks (Facebook,
Twitter etc.) so that only your real friends can contact you and see
your page or profile.
• Report them. If someone has posted something upsetting about
you on a website, you can report them. Visit Thinkuknow to find
out how. If you have been bullied on your mobile phone, you can
report them to your mobile network company.
Cyberbullying

21. The Dangers of Sexting
• Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily
between mobile phones (sex + texting).
• Sexting can have serious, and in some cases, disastrous consequences.
• Reputations, social lives, future academics, and careers can be ruined as a result of nude
pictures going public. There can also be serious implications for the victim’s mental health.
• Victims may feel humiliation, low self esteem, and in some instances, suicide has been
attributed directly to sexting.
• Many teens are embarrassed and feel regret once they realize what they have done during
a momentary lapse in judgment.
• Once the image has been posted and starts circulating there is no telling where it will end
up. And, there is no way to “take it back” or delete it.

22. The Dangers of Sexting

23. Online Predators

24. Online Predators
• Online predators are individuals who primarily collect and trade child-pornographic images,
while others seek face-to-face meetings with children.
• Be aware of the fact that your children may be at potential risk of encountering online
predators. This is especially true for those times when kids use social media in order to “meet
new friends,” and it’s not always easy for them to tell when “new friends” have bad intentions.
• Anonymity is the main characteristic of predators. Anyone can very easily take on a false
identity and pretend to be someone else. Having anonymity can facilitate a sense of intimacy
but can also serve to hide the true identity of an online predator.
• Someone posing as a 15 year old teenager can in actuality be a 37 year old male.
• Online predators take advantage of this to build trust and intimacy and to develop online
relationships with innocent young boys and girls of all ages.

25. ‘Pedophile playground’: Sexual
predators targeting increasing number
of children online

26. How Online Predators Operate
• Find kids through social networking, blogs, chat rooms (even monitored kids chat rooms),
instant messaging, email, and other websites, often using information in their targets’
personal profiles.
• Seduce their targets through attention, flattery, affection, kindness, and even gifts. These
types of manipulation will cause kids to lose their sense of awareness, and help the predators
to get from bad intentions to sexual exploitation (this is called “grooming” and may continue
over extended time periods).
• Are familiar with the latest music, hobbies, fashion, etc. that are likely to interest kids, and
may impersonate other youths in order to convince minors to meet with them.
• Look for children that are emotionally vulnerable due to problems at school or home.
• Listen to and sympathize with kids' problems, while building a pseudo friendship, taking the
kids’ side vis-à-vis their parents or teachers.

28. Signs Your Child Could be in Contact with an
Online Predator
• Children who spend a lot of time online are at the greatest risk during the evening hours. While offenders
are online around the clock, most work during the day and spend their evenings online
trying to locate and lure children or seeking pornography.
• Finding pornographic materials on the computer - child pornography may be used to show
the victim that sex between children and adults is "normal."
• Receives phone calls, mail, gifts from people you do not know
• Withdraws from normal activity
• Switches screen quickly when you approach, or turns the monitor off
• Uses other accounts for email or Instant Messaging
If your kids do meet an online predator, don't blame them.
It’s always the offender’s responsibility.
Take decisive action to stop your child from any further contact with this person.

29. Could Your Student/Child be a Victim?
Warning Signs
• Not wanting to be involved in family or school activities
• Exhibiting unusual mood swings (nervous, jumpy)
• Shows a decline in homework or grades
• Trouble sleeping
• Unexpectedly stops or is reluctant to use the computer
• Quickly switches screens or closes programs when an adult is present (secretive of
their digital life)
• Unusual interest in self-harm or suicide
• Displays unusual anger, sadness , depression, and/or a decrease in self-esteem
• May discuss revenge
• Change in appetite

30. Brain Changes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hff
WFd_6bJ0

31. Dangers of Social Media
What we know about teens:
• They are constantly trying to
define themselves.
• They crave positive feedback to
help them see how their
identity fits into their world.
• They use social media for this
feedback... but they are looking
in a dangerous place.
How is this harmful:
• The danger exists in the
possibility of a very public
rejection because negative
feedback is there for anyone
and everyone to see.
• Another danger is that teens
ask for feedback without
learning first that not
everyone will respond in a
supportive way.

33. What Can You Do
• In order to teach your children how to seek
feedback from genuine sources, parents should
start early by helping their children identify
trustworthy sources.
• Most importantly, parents need to reinforce that
the most influential voice should come from
within.

34. Engage Your Family
• Engage your teen in meaningful conversation about internet use
• Talk to other parents, deans, counselors
• Validate your teen's reality and their need to be connected
• Engage your child in drafting the rules for the family:
– guidelines for use
– consequences for breaking those rules
• Model appropriate use of technology:
– minimize texting
– don't use cell phone/laptop at meals
– don't use cell phone in the car

35. Let Your Teen Know
• That you have the right to check their laptop, phone, etc..
• What apps/media are okay and what are not
• That you need to know their passwords
• What their online responsibilities are:
– Protecting their privacy
– Not engaging in cyber bullying

36. What Are You Worried About?
• Invading your kid’s privacy?
• Not feeling comfortable with being on social media?
• That they have secret accounts?
Just as you would establish ground rules and do diligence in person, there
is a need to do the same things - or even more - with the internet.

37. Other Parental Concern
• 81% are worried about how much advertisers can learn about
their kid’s through their behavior online
• 72% are worried their kid is interacting with people they do
not know online
• 70% are worried about how their online activity might affect
their future academic or employment opportunities
• 60% are worried about their kids reputation online

38. Apps to Protect Your Teen’s Phone
• My Mobile Watchdog
• Mobile Spy
• Text Guard
• WebWatcher

39. Using Social Media Safely
• 1. Know usernames and passwords of the sites your children use
/monitor use
• 2. Speak with kids about proper use of social media and what not to
post and/or respond to from someone else (think about the
consequences)
• 3. Things can’t be permanently deleted so make sure your kids know
this

40. Using Social Media Safely
• 3. Only communicate with people you know and trust
• 4. Keep it public
– Computer(s) and tablets need to be used in a public area in
the home
• 5. Talk about it
– “Friend” your children/parents Get involved
• 6. Locate and know privacy settings
Talking to Kids and Teens About Social Media and Sexting. (n.d.). Talking to Kids and Teens About Social Media and Sexting. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from
http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/news-features-and-safety-tips/pages/Talking-to-Kids-and-Teens-About-Social-Media-and-Sexting.aspx
Netzsmartz for Parents and Children

41. Prevention
• Before giving children wireless devices, parents should learn how to
limit or restrict the products and services.
• Tell children to think before posting.
• Always set and check privacy settings.
• Children should not have a computer in their bedroom and should
always be visible to parents while they are online.
• Review your child’s list of friends.
• Don’t assume anything you post will remain private.

42. Prevention Continued…
• Never open unidentified or unsolicited messages.
• Remember to log out of online accounts.
• When not in use, make sure webcams are shut off to prevent spying/hacking.
• Do not share personal information online (phone number, address, social
security number, or school information).
• Check for pornography, sexual communication, or any other inappropriate
content on your child’s computer.
• You can ultimately be held liable for any misuse of your social media accounts
committed by a third party.
• Teach children to trust their instincts if they feel something is wrong.

43. Prevention Continued…
• Google yourself occasionally to see what is written about you online
(Oovoo, Kik, Instagram).
• Remember that all the texts, photos, and videos you create are saved
and available as digital evidence.
• NEVER plan to meet a stranger or online “friend” in person.

45. Thank You