Simple Tips for Helping Students Become Safer, Smarter Social Media Users

In thinking about teens and online risks, school librarians need to know researchers generally agree that, despite the popular image of pedophiles and criminals lurking online waiting to harm innocent young people, in reality social media use is only about as risky as most everyday social interactions in the offline world (Agosto and Abbas 2013). Funded by a 2014 ALISE/OCLC Library and Information Science Research Grant, the authors worked with 98 seniors in 2 high schools to find out more about their social media use. Participants in the study completed questionnaires about their digital device ownership, Internet/Web access, and social media use and took part in hour-long focus group interviews. The findings showed that this was a highly connected group of students with high social media participation. Based on these results and guided by suggestions from the teens themselves, the authors created two sets of guidelines, that are shared herein, for helping librarians, teachers, and other concerned adults teach students how to become safer social media users. The first set of guidelines is called "Best Practices for Teaching Teens to Become Safer, Smarter Social Media Users." It presents eight educational strategies that school librarians, classroom teachers, and other educators can use to increase the effectiveness of online safety education. In the second set of guidelines, "10 Simple Tips for Safer Social Media Use," the authors offer easy recommendations for teens themselves to follow online.