We teach a lot about social media apps used by Teens and Tweens. Our message is pretty simple, social media is not positive, nor negative, nor is it neutral. When we post on social media something is going to happen. If we post positive, good things can happen, if we post negative, we risk hurting reputations, creating drama or worse. However, some apps are misused by Teens and Tweens more than other apps.
Snapchat and Kik are front and center this week with separate incidents in Central Ohio, Newtown, Connecticut and Virginia Tech.
In Central Ohio I blogged earlier about nursing-home residents who were ridiculed on social media sites. A particularly egregious nursing home video was shared on Snapchat.
In Newton, three Newtown High School students have been arrested and accused of involvement in a “sexting” ring that circulated sexually explicit images and videos of other students, sometimes for money. If Newton sounds familiar to you, perhaps it is because this the town where the worst mass shooting occurred in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary in which 20 children and 6 adults were victims. Last May, students began transmitting sexually explicit images and videos on cell-phone text messaging apps such as Snapchat, Facetime, iMessage, Kik and others .
Kik makes an appearance at Virginia Tech. If Virginia Tech sounds familiar, maybe you are recalling that school as the site of a 2007 massacre.
Their current saga unfolds with a Virginia Tech student accused of abducting and killing a 13 year-old girl. The victim had exchanged Kik messages with the college student and had arranged to meet the student in the evening.
Kik and Snapchat, the app really doesn’t matter, if kids are misusing it, big trouble can occur.
Makes me want to underline the point that some are skilled at manipulating technology to get attention, but not so good at dealing with what unfolds afterwards. Teens and Tweens use social media to connect, my hope is that they are connecting in ways, and connecting with people, who will enhance, rather than harm.
This information makes this new world we live in very scary. Our kids are growing up thinking that these things are normal. Parents need to be more aware of what their children are doing.
As I read this, it made me think of social media as a tool or object. They’re used mostly for the original intent (for good) but can and always will be used for bad. Take any object and the same holds true.
You know it’s almost always pictures and videos. Maybe not in the Virginia Tech situation but it seems like that’s the root of most problems. I’m just thinking out loud but having a way for parents to disable cameras might be something I would like. It’s easy to say just teach your kids how to use phones but the camera causes a lot of headaches.