Inside: L-EISD holds social media, internet safety program,
Digital and social media security is a topic on the minds of parents and educators as they work to keep children safe online. While parents know their child has a digital footprint through apps and texting, many don’t know how to access their student’s activity.
Liberty-Eylau Independent School District held a social media and internet safety program Monday in the high school’s media center to help inform parents of the dangers of their child putting too much information on social media.
District Communications Director Matt Fry said the district polled students in fifth through 12th grades to evaluate their internet use.
“It’s a powerful tool,” he said. “Social media is something that’s going to be there, and so our kids use it just as much or probably a little bit more than we do.”
The data shows 94 percent of students access social media through their phone, 33 percent through a laptop, 28 percent through gaming systems and 24 percent through tablets.
“Ninety-four percent of them get on it with their phone … that’s where kids get most of their information,” Fry said.
The poll showed 69 percent of the students are on Snapchat and Instagram, 30 percent are on Facebook, 15 percent use Twitter and 13 percent don’t use social media. Other apps include WhatsApp, Tumblr, YouTube, TikTok, Monkey, Pinterest, Discord and Roblox.
“Only 30 percent are on Facebook,” he said. “Do you know why? Because that’s where their parents are. They don’t want to be there because you’re not cool.”
Additional data shows 72 percent check their social media multiple times per day, and only 39.8 percent of students polled said their parents monitor their social media accounts.
Fry said parents should be aware of what their child is doing because ultimately the parents are responsible for their child’s online interactions, including bullying.
“The question comes as to who is responsible for that stuff,” he said. “Who is responsible for what the kids do on their phone? The truth of the matter is, you are. You own those devices, you own those plans. In the state of Texas say you are responsible.”
He was referring to David’s Law, passed during the last session of the Texas Legislature. It is named for David Molak, a San Antonio high school student who died by suicide after being harassed online. It also requires districts to provide an online system where students can report bullying anonymously.
“(David’s Law) says that if your children are involved in activities on social media, even if they’re not in school, we at the school not only have the ability, but we have an obligation to address that in some sort of disciplinary matter,” Fry said. “And that gets parents kind of fired up sometimes when all of a sudden they have to meet with one of the principals because their kid started something on social media.”
Fry showed a video of a former sports star who lost a college scholarship because of his YouTube videos. He also showed a video in which a young man conducted a social experiment chatting on Facebook with minor girls to see if they would meet him. He contacted their parents, who agreed to participate and see if their daughters would follow through with the meeting. Both of the girls, who were preteens, gave the man their home address, much to their parents’ shock.
Fry said communication is key and that parents need to educate themselves on what’s out there and continually monitor it.
“That’s the best we can do,” he said. “We can’t be intimidated by it.”
He gave attendees a packet with guidelines for monitoring social media and information on how parents can check their students’ accounts. Fry said the presentation would be available on their social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.
“This constantly changes,” he said. “It’s not something we have all the answers to today and certainly will not have all the answers to tomorrow. But hopefully if we work together, you guys as parents work with us at schools, we can keep up with all this and work to keep the kids safe, because that’s what has to be most important.”
“Social media is something that’s going to be there, and so our kids use it just as much or probably a little bit more than we do.” —Matt Fry, L-EISD communications director
“Who is responsible for what the kids do on their phone? The truth of the matter is, you are.” —L-EISD Communications Director Matt Fry