For some time now I have been writing and talking about the need to support our young people to keep safe in this new world where communication is instant, but has lasting consequences.
(You will see links to those at the end of this post).
The issue has always been that parents do not feel well enough informed themselves and so our youngsters are left largely to figure it out with their peers.
We have seen the results of that with stories like Paris Brown having to resign from her post as Police Youth Commissioner back in 2013, to last month’s headlines ‘Teenage boy added to police database for ‘sexting’.
And then we have statistics like this:
69% of employers have rejected a candidate because of what they had seen about them on a social media site.
The good news however is that
68% said that they had hired someone as a result of what they had seen about them on a social media site. (Reppler).
Which shows us the importance of working with our youngsters to build a positive on-line profile .
I have been working with schools and youth workers on this issue for 2 years now and I’m delighted to say that;
-
The Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner has just funded me to run 20 sessions for parents and carers on this very issue.
-
The email went out yesterday afternoon and I already have 5 bookings! Which confirms that this is much wanted and needed work.
If you are a parent or carer, or work with parents and carers in the Lancaster District and would like to talk to Jane about this work please email her on jane@janebinnion.com
Here are some of the posts addressing these issues that you may find useful.
Managing Your Child’s On-line Reputation – If not you then who?
Are we being respectful of our children’s privacy on social media?