BANGOR, Maine — Maine schools try to teach their students about the potential hazards of social media and the Internet, but some might not be doing enough to drive the message home, according to a childhood development expert.
Amy Morin is a Maine-based psychotherapist, author and contributor to Forbes and About.com. She’s worked with schools in Waterville, Winslow, Lee and elsewhere on Web safety training for kids and teens
She says most schools she’s worked with have annual, one-day events or assemblies for their students, but that’s not enough for things to “sink in.” Morin likened it to annual fire safety trainings, after which some students spend a few days “worried their house is going to burn down, then they largely forget about it the next week.”
“You certainly don’t need to scare them every day,” but responsible, safe use of technology should be an ongoing aspect of education.
The issue is at the forefront again in the wake of an investigation into a John Bapst Memorial High School teacher who used online social networking apps to solicit nude photographs from a female student.
“We have annual training for students and faculty. The dangers inherent are so familiar to us and the dangers only proliferate,” Bapst’s head of school, Mel Mackay, said recently. “When the [shock subsides], we’ll relook at what we’re doing and ask what more can we do.”
Morin acknowledged that sometimes those messages don’t stick.
“Teens think, ‘That will never happen to me,’” even if you cite specific examples of how it can happen to anyone, Morin said. Sometimes, the fallout has to hit close to home for awareness to embed itself.
The importance and influence of technology grows each year, as students of all ages have broad access to the Internet, especially through mobile phones. That includes a vast, seemingly limitless array of knowledge but also hazards that can be easy to fall into.
The Maine Department of Education on Thursday announced a partnership with Common Sense Media — a California-based nonprofit that promotes safe, responsible use of technology to further students’ education — to offer free workshops to educators this spring to help them “harness the positive power of technology” in classrooms.
Those workshops are meant to introduce teachers to useful online teaching and sharing tools. They also aim to teach students “good digital citizenship,” by introducing them to the potential dangers of the Internet and how to participate responsibly and respectfully.
Morin said it’s also vital that students learn not everything they’ve heard about certain social media apps is true. For example, many teens and adults who use the app Snapchat believe it’s a private, consequence-free way to share videos and photos with another person, because those images are supposedly deleted a few seconds after they’re shared. The app has become widely known as the “sexting app” for that reason.
But nothing shared “privately” online is guaranteed to stay that way, Morin said. It’s possible to take screenshots of images or videos, saving them before they’re “deleted,” from Snapchat. There have been instances in which video clips and photos shared over the app were leaked and shared on the Internet or among friends. The teacher at the center of the John Bapst incident was found out, in part, by tracing his Snapchat and Whisper, an anonymous messaging app, accounts.
Bangor Superintendent Betsy Webb said Friday that her schools teach Web safety throughout a student’s career. Lessons include bullying prevention, information literacy and the school’s acceptable use policy, she said.
“These messages are annual and repeat throughout the year,” she said.
Morin and school districts recommend several websites with information, games and activities for students from elementary school through high school. Many school districts in the state make that information readily available on their websites. For example, Bangor shares its internet use policies and links to informative sites such as netsmartz411.org on its website, bangorschools.net. RSU 26 in Orono also has a page dedicated to sharing resources and games to teach students about safe practices online.
Parents should be heavily involved in the education process, Morin said. Many students have easier, restriction-free access to the Web at home, but parents also have the “most opportunity to enforce rules,” she added.
Morin recommended Common Sense Media, ikeepsafe.org, and pbskids.org/webonauts to any parents or educators looking for resources.
Students have weekends, nights and summers without the chance for intervention or teaching responsible, safe technology use, so parents should be as involved, if not more involved, in setting ground rules and helping kids navigate the waters, Morin said.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.
BDN Metro & Standards editor Mike Dowd contributed to this report.