Social Media’s Impact Felt By Students And The School System

By Eliza Hallabeck

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said she has seen parents bring in piles of printed online exchanges of foul and inappropriate language directed at their children.

“These are our students?” she said, still holding her hands out on Wednesday, July 7, mimicking the piles of paper. “I’m appalled it’s out there.”

But students do not understand, she said, anything written on the Internet is there forever, and social media’s impact on the social atmosphere in schools is a passionate topic for her.

“It was once only at the high school,” Dr Robinson said, “but we’ve been concentrating our efforts at the middle school and intermediate levels.”

Whether online interactions happen on the weekends or from a home computer, she said, it is the district’s responsibility, by state guidelines, to react when education is compromised.

Last week roughly 50 Newtown Bee readers responded to an informal survey for parents with children younger than 15 who use social media websites. The majority of parents responding said their children were between the ages of 10 to 15, and 11 responders said their children are under 10 years old.

Social media, Dr Robinson said, adds a whole new dimension to parenting that has never been faced before.

While the main social media network used by survey respondents was Facebook — 30 parents said their children use Facebook over other websites — others mentioned the video chat site Oovoo, Twitter, and Formspring, a site that provides its users with questions to answer about other users. Formspring answers can be anonymous.

Reed Intermediate School Assistant Principal Anthony Salvatore, who has spoken in the district on the topic of online bullying and who participated in last year’s Community Conversation on bullying, said he hesitated to any draw conclusions from an informal online survey, but found some of the responses interesting.

The survey was not limited to adults and relied on responders being open and honest with the age and status as a parent of the young teen or child. Results, as Dr Salvatore pointed out, could also be skewed by not requiring responses to each answer. One question, for example, had 20 responders skip the answer.

Dr Salvatore said parents are encouraged to monitor their children’s interactions online. Of the 34 parents who responded to the question, “Do you monitor your child’s social network page?” 30 parents said they do.

“Daily!” one commenter wrote on the survey. “The condition of my children having [Facebook] pages is that they have to accept me and my husband as their ‘friend’ and not restrict what we see.”

Another comment on the survey said, “I monitor the page regularly, and it is very clear other parents do not. He has a page with the condition I have the password. I have made him delete things, or I have deleted things and had discussions with him as to why. It actually gives me insight as to what is going on with a lot of kids that I wouldn’t know otherwise. Also he is ‘friends’ with his aunts, uncles, and some of my friends. He knows he’s being watched.”

Dr Salvatore said one father told him he has set up a system of monitoring his child where each time the child posts an interaction on Facebook, he is sent a text message on his BlackBerry.

Another recommendation Dr Salvatore gives to parents is that they become computer literate in terms of what computers and cell phones give students access to. Some cases, he said, can spill into school life for students.

“It’s not a bad tool,” Dr Salvatore said. “It’s how people use it or abuse it.”

Emotional Interactions

While Facebook can help people connect to old friends, he said, emotional interactions can effect students while in school, and threats made online can bring the police into the equation.

In the coming year Dr Salvatore said he expects workshops will be set up for students at Reed, and at Newtown Middle School multiple presentations were made for students on using the Internet appropriately, including one by Newtown Police Department School Resource Officer Lenny Penna.

Because of the age range of students at Reed Intermediate School, Dr Salvatore said students always feel a sense of pressure.

If parents have trouble understanding the parameters of online social networking sites, Dr Salvatore suggests asking older children for help if possible. Once parents understand their child’s social media site, he said the next step is to teach their children how to use it appropriately.

Of the 35 parents who answered the Bee survey question, “Have you discussed/set the privacy setting on your child’s social networking page?,” 30 parents said Yes.

 While Dr Salvatore said he was glad to see the high number of parents on the survey respond that they do monitor their child’s online interactions, he also said, “The 59 percent of respondents who said Yes to having children under age 15 who have a Facebook or other social networking page is concerning. I wonder if they know that there is a minimum age requirement of 13 for Facebook? I also wonder if these children have the social skills necessary to handle properly a Facebook page and know what the limits are for putting information on the page, understanding the implications of what is put on there for employment or college admission and responding appropriately to other Facebook users. Do parents teach them the skills? Do they know what skills are appropriate in developing a healthy social network? Just because a child has the technological skill to operate a Facebook page doesn’t mean that she/he has the emotional and cognitive skills to deal properly with the implications of a Facebook page.”

Another concern Dr Salvatore found on viewing the survey results came from responses to the question, “What does your child mainly use their social networking page for?” Most responded their children use their social networking page to talk to friends, but Dr Salvatore said online interactions and face-to-face interactions are not equitable. Both situations, he said, require different social skills and thinking skills.

“One in particular is patience,” he said. “I find an increasing number of children who have little or no patience for other children so they find them ‘annoying.’ I don’t know if there is a link between increased computer use and increased lack of patience.”

The ten Yes responses to the question, “Do you think your child has friends on the social networking page that he/she does not personally know?” also alarmed Dr Salvation. Twenty-five parents answered No to the question.

“If you don’t know a person personally, then I would advise them to drop those people immediately. Social network sites are an attraction for online predators, according to the state police, FBI, and Connecticut State District Attorney’s Office, according to a workshop I attended. Another reason to have the required skill set to understand the reasons why you don’t accept someone as a friend on your social networking page that you don’t know and what you need to look out for as far as inappropriate behavior, such as meeting the person somewhere.”

One responder to the question wrote, “She may not know them all well (some are friends of friends or cousins), but she knows who they are and where they are from if not local.”

Another said, “Some friends online are just acquaintances at school or friends of friends. Adult friends are relatives only.”

Two of 34 responders said their child has complained about being harassed on their social networking page. Dr Salvatore said this response seems low, and that the higher response of five of 34 saying their child had mentioned other children being harassed seemed more honest.

“This is similar to some children not reporting being bullied,” Dr Salvatore said, “because they fear that they will be in trouble for somehow creating the problem. It is critical for parents to make it crystal clear to their child that they will not be punished for telling the truth. There are always consequences, good and bad, but never a punishment, like losing their computer access. It may require re-teaching the rules of safe computer use.”

The Bee conducts weekly surveys online. To participate in the surveys and view results go to www.newtownbee.com.