In my job as a teacher from first to seventh grade (6 to 13 years) it’s often discussed: in what age kids should be supposed to use social network. This is because the age they’re allowed to use for example Facebook is at 13. There are many problems with for example hazing that are written about by many before. My experience is that many pupils don’t follow the limit of age which is set by a site. We could look away and say these pupils don’t follow the rules, but then the pupils might learn a lesson the hard way. There are also many kids who use other social network with lower age limit. Therefore I’m going to have a look at the positive effects of social networking on kid’s premises, and how to encourage pupils to safe network communication.
When kids use a social network, they learn much related to digital competence at an early stage. Grownups which start networking at a high age, often know less about what kind of information it’s wise to post. In my school the pupils teach some of the first years how to use a learning management system (LMS). They meet the first type of networking by using the debate forum. There they get a feeling with how their posts work with other pupils. The pupils also get familiar with how “stuff works”. It’s well known that young people learn faster than grownups. Using a social network is self-motivating for kids. Because they think it’s fun, so they use much time on the network. By using much time they also get lots of other knowledge. They can for example learn how to link or embed a YouTube video at a network site. This kind of knowledge and much more, pupils get from using social network.
Social networking can also help kids who is insecure, to make contact with others. This way it may help them in social relationships. This mustn’t however be instead of ordinary social contact, but in addition to. Then it may help some building friendship, like grownups finds love on dating sites on internet.
Kids should learn at an early age how cyberbullying affects those who get bullied and those who bully. This is because it’s better to work preventive than learning the hard way. Cyberbullying is maybe the worst form of hazing, because written words on a social network meet you every time you’re logged in. Cyberbullying can follow you your entire life. It can also be shown to the whole world, instead of the whole schoolyard. Therefore is it very important for teachers and parents to teach kids network etiquette.
There will always be kids who starts early with social networking, we can’t prevent that. Instead of let them try and fail, I think it might be to wise help all pupils to learn how to behave in these networks at an early stage. By this I mean 1st or 2nd graders to start using a debate forum at a closed LMS, and then other lessons later.
A video about the positive impacts of social networking.
