Essay on Social Media Safety Should Be Taught In Schools

Did you know that 90% of teens ages 13-17 have used social media? And fifty-one percent use it daily? Social media has become a huge part of teen’s everyday lives. Most's parents don’t know how to respond when their kids ask can I buy Snapchat or Instagram. Or any form of social media. This is because they don’t know whether these sites are trustworthy. Yes, social media is a way for kids to communicate and stay up to date with family and friends, and maybe make new ones. But they still don’t know if these sites are secure. This is why I think social media safety should be taught in schools. Whatever you post on the internet will come back to haunt you. Secondly, the privacy concerns and safety of social media outweigh the benefits, and lastly, social media is becoming a huge part of kid’s teen culture, and they should know to be timid about it. 

First and foremost, social media is becoming a huge part of kids’ and teens’ culture. Schools are now even using social media. Now 81,000 schools across the US use technology to teach. Most schools have guidelines for social media, usually being, using good judgment, being respectful, and being responsible. But they don’t say why it’s important to follow these guidelines.  They also have limits on school devices of what content students can see but what about out of school. Even if teachers talked about it for a minute or incorporated it into their lesson kids would know how to be safe, and respectful. A teacher at a school in Philadelphia starts the year by reading the book OMG which is about what every student needs to know online, digital citizenship, and cyberbullying. Then, they talk about the content. Schools wouldn’t have to spend classes talking about it. Just spending a little bit every week or two. Besides, one-third of 9-12-year-olds have their Facebook accounts even though the minimum age is 13. This proves many children don’t notice the ways it can be dangerous to themselves and others. But the thing is they should be educated on the risk of doing this in the first place. 

Secondly, posts will come back to haunt you later in life. Colleges now are looking at the applicant’s social media profiles. Some students who were accepted into Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, some of the nicest schools have gotten their acceptance resigned before even getting there. Why? Inappropriate social media content. According to a 2017 survey conducted by the American association of college registration, it showed 11% of applicants were denied admission. That may not seem like a lot but 11% out of about 19.6 million students in the US who apply to colleges is a lot. 11% of 19.6 million is about 2,156,000. So, about 2 million were denied admission. The same thing applies when applying for a job. According to another Career Builder survey in 2018, 70 percent of employers use social media to look at during the hiring process. 43 percent use it to check on current employees. People are being denied jobs because of posts they had when they were 15 or 16. That shouldn’t be something that affects people but sadly it is. Marilyn Hesser, executive director of admission at the University of Richmond in Virginia says"As a residential campus, when we're reviewing candidates, we're just not admitting students for the classroom; we're admitting students to be a part of this community," All children should know what’s ok and not ok to be posting online because once it’s there it never goes away. 

Third, the benefits of social media don’t outweigh the privacy and safety concerns. There was a survey on cyberbullying and it showed 60% of kids on social media have witnessed it and 47% have been victims. That is almost half! Children don’t understand social boundaries. They post private information without even realizing that it’s wrong. Some cyber predators stalk children online and this can lead to dangerous encounters in real life. They should know to never trust people you meet online. Not only are there cyberbullies but there are hackers too. Google did some research that showed 20% of all accounts online will be hacked at one point. Patrick Allmond with Focus Digital Marketing say’s-"Social media doesn’t come with a rule book and lessons," "The day you get your Facebook account you don’t go to Facebook class.” This is true, but if online it was taught in school, you wouldn’t need a rule book. You would already know what to do in these situations with cyberbullying, predators, hackers, and more. 

In conclusion, I think that social media safety should be taught in schools for three reasons. First posts will come back to haunt you and they should know how to prevent it, second The privacy concerns and safety of social media outweigh the benefits, and lastly, Social media is becoming a huge part of kid’s and teen’s lives and should know what to do in dangerous situations. Some people may argue that it is the family's job to monitor what they are doing on the internet. But schools teach sex ed in health class. So if they are going to say families should teach their kids about online safety, why couldn’t they teach their kids about sex ed? Without social media taught in schools, kids may find themselves in many bad situations. If schools did teach this they would know what to do in these situations.