On November 15th, Louisa County's Commonwealth's Attorney
Rusty McGuire and Senator Tom Garrett came to Louisa County High School to
speak with our students regarding the appropriate use of social media sites and
what can happen when these sites are not used appropriately. During their presentation, Mr. McGuire and Senator
Garrett spoke about recent cases across the nation where students had been
bullied using social media, incidents where words exchanged through social
media caused a fight which lead to several arrests, and the fact that individuals
can face criminal charges based on what they write on sites such as Facebook
and Twitter.
I would ask that you please help keep these social media
sites a safe place for all by monitoring what your child is posting on sites
such as Facebook, Twitter, Vine, and Instagram.
As we told the students, these sites are a great way to keep in touch
with friends and family, but, if used incorrectly, can lead to significant
problems, both for those posting and those who read the posts. The following suggestions for keeping teens
safe on social media were posted by the USA.GOV website:
1. Keep your child’s profile private so that
only family and people you know see photos, important dates and other
information.
2. Make sure they’re not posting personal
details, including phone numbers, home address, and the name of their school or
Social Security number.
3. Only allow them to publish photos and videos that don’t jeopardize their safety or their
integrity.
4. Make sure they choose a strong password
that can’t be guessed, and that it gets changed every three months.
5. Never allow them to accept friend
requests from people they don’t know.
6. Keep an open dialogue with your children.
Ask them to let you know if they’ve received private messages from a stranger,
or from someone at school who is teasing, harassing or threatening them. Those
could be signs of cyber-bullying or even a sexual
predator.
SOURCE: http://blog.usa.gov/post/60075400004/six-tips-for-keeping-teens-safe-on-social-media
If you feel that your child is being harassed or bullied
by another student through social media, or if you feel that something is
happening through social media that could manifest itself at school, please
feel free to call LCHS and speak to an administrator. We will take the necessary steps to ensure
that these types of incidents do not impact the learning environment at LCHS.
As always, thank you for visiting my blog. If you have any questions, please feel free
to contact me at 540-894-5436 or at smithte@lcps.k12.va.us.
