REEDLEY (KMJ) — A Central Valley school district is teaching both students and the public how to use social media responsibly.
The cyber safety events are to explain how dangerous and potentially disastrous online sharing can be for those featured in the post.
“You have someone who goes to a party, or a wedding, or even a teacher at karaoke night, and you have somebody who thinks its funny and so they start filming it and then they post it online,” explains the Executive Director at the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell Phone Communication Richard Geurry.
“But did they ever stop and think first: ‘you know what, could that get that person fired, divorced, thrown out of school?’
“Would that person want that public and permanent?”
He says the proliferation of sharing technology is making it easier to send pictures and video into the world for everyone to see.
“A human can take that tool, a student can take that tool, they can come from nothing, and they can take that tool and open up windows of opportunity past generations would never have thought possible.
“Or they can take that tool and they can close those windows of opportunity. It’s all in how they use it. So our goal is to eliminate blind decision making.”
Two planned events are open to both the public and students. The first is Wednesday August 30th between 6.30pm and 8pm, inside Reedley High School’s Performing Arts Theatre. The second is Thursday August 31st between 6.30pm and 8pm, inside Orange Cove High School’s cafeteria. The presentation will be in both English and Spanish.
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
