the Social Sidekick: A Social Media Info Night
Working with Teens we know that social and online media is here to stay. We used to communicate with fliers, phone calls and letters. Now we text, tweet, Facebook event pages and use Instagram…just to name a few.
There are so many great ways we can use social media. However, just as there are great ways to use social media there are people out there who are looking for ways to use it to harm and hurt people, especially teens. They use social and online media to bully, to sext and promote child pornography and blackmail among other things.
Because of this, the Children’s Ministry and I teamed up together to host a Social Media Information Night. One will be held on a Friday night for Parents only and the other on Sunday night for 5th – 12th graders. We’ve brought in an expert in the field to share his knowledge and to help make everyone aware of the dangers and privacy issues that can get parents and teens in a lot of trouble. We’ve been promoting on Facebook, emails, twitter and all sorts of other social and online media outlets. We think we are going to get a really good turnout. What we posted can be found here.
What am I trying to get out here? As you know, social and online media is ever changing and as a ministry we need to be helping students and parents, not just with their spiritual health but with their whole lives. That is why I am excited about what we are doing this weekend.
But, it’s not the only thing ministries can do to help families in this area. I am sure there are other ideas out there that you can do.
So, TAKE A MINUTE right and share some of the ideas you have done or are going to try in your groups that have been helpful in this area. What has been good or not so good? Share below so we can all learn and benefit from each other.
I am not a parent, but I did grow up while many of these social media sites came about (Facebook, twitter, tumblr, vine, etc). I experienced many things first hand. If I was a parent though this is probably the advice and way I would handle my kid on social media. The first thing is you need to wait until your kid is mature enough. Facebook and Instagram have an age minimum of 13, but also have very good privacy and filter services. 13-15 is probably an acceptable age to let your kid start there. You just need to make sure that your child knows who they are friending and accepting friends. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your mother or father to read either. Twitter is probably the most powerful of all of these but it is also the most raw and unfiltered. I got a twitter in 2008, when basically nobody was on it. It really boomed in 2010 and a lot of problems emerged for me. I saw bullying, anonymous accounts harassing people, pictures I didn’t want to see and much more. While I think twitter is fantastic and 90% of my experiences on it have been positive, you need to educate your child that they will see things or might even be involved involuntarily in something. It’s important to make sure your child knows to ignore these posts, report them if they need to, block those harassing them, and to be mature about it. They will see there peers engaging in inappropriate things but you need to make sure they are smart enough to stay out if it. All in all, I don’t think preventing your child from being on social media is the answer. Teaching them to be weary and avoid negative and inappropriate posts and links is the smart thing. Social media is powerful thing and it’s something that is becoming more and more involved in everyone’s lives. Teaching your kids the right rules and etiquette early on is the best thing you can do.
Thanks for the comment Ryan! Great points, I agree completely with what you said.