In recent years, the majority of our student conflicts originated from unsupervised cell phone use, group chats, and social media postings ranging from students in 2nd grade all the way to 6th. Ghavinn Crutcher, our Mental Health Clinician, shared videos and information with our community regarding the correlation of anxiety, stress, and social media access for our students. Many of these students own at least one social media account and participate in group chats. In both cases, students were unaware of the inability to delete what they post from other's phones and the adverse impact of sharing personal/appropriate information in these settings.
Most of the conflicts originated out of school, but almost always ended up at school interrupting the learning environment and the positive relationships of students. Students were posting pictures online on social media pages and even creating pages under a students name often without permission from the other students. When these pictures and posts are discovered by students, conflict naturally ensued and arguments happened at school. While working to resolve these conflicts, we discovered that parent controls are not being used.
We highly recommend parent controls on cell phones. The students with parent controls on their phones generally didn't engage in any conflicts compared to other students without parent controls on their cell phones. One of the most important parent control is setting a bedtime for Smartphones so students can get a good night's sleep. We find that students are on social media and chatting to one another into the late hours of the night. The most important part of this message is student safety. Students with an unmonitored Smartphone have access to everything on the internet and anyone on the internet has access to your student.
Below are several articles for parents. We hope you find them helpful. Let's keep our students safe and minimize their distractions while learning at school.
4 Conversations to Have About Screen Time Habits
Parents' Ultimate Guide to Instagram
11 Social Media Red Flag Parents Should Know About
How to Help Teens Manage the Effects of Social Media
Practical Tips for Easing Kids Social Media Anxiety
Parents' Ultimate Guide to Tik Tok
Parents Ultimate Guide to Parental Controls
Help Kids Navigate Viral Social Media Stunts