In our society, almost everything we do is with technology or Internet access, and this evolves everyday. The PTSA for Lincoln has a monthly Speaker’s Series, where a topic is discussed and addressed in our local community. The topic of this Speaker’s series (February 1st, 2016) was social media and how teenagers these days use the social media on the market. The Speaker that PTSA had come to Lincoln’s Media Center was Angela Alvarado, the Santa Clara County District Attorney, who conducted a detailed presentation with information and key problems that social media has caused for teenagers. 

Ms. Alvarado began the presentation by explaining her three steps of advice for anyone that has social media or internet access; don’t ask, don’t send, and don’t pass it along. She made these points very clear in the beginning and then reminded the group at the end, which is great advice for anyone.

The main objectives of Ms. Alvarado’s presentation were safer kids, educated parents, and open communication and partnership. She went on to explain internet safety to kids/teens, like whatever they post on the internet will always be on the internet. Then she illustrated to parents the major social media sites and that if law enforcement’s find a law violation(child pornography, bullying, harassment, etc.) on the child’s phone it will be traced back to the parent(s) and the parent(s) will be charged for the crime. Finally, she ended with the idea of a parental contract that parents can give to their child to keep a responsibility and understood trust for phone/internet privileges.

It was a great presentation that Ms. Alvarado gave because it was very informative and it showed the reality of social media, not only for kids/teens, but also for parents.

The number one sexting application is Snapchat, where users can send pictures/videos to other users that only last 1-10 seconds and then it goes away, but the content that is send can be easily recovered by anyone. The Snapchat application, along the application Kik, an instant messaging application that has many options of content available without leaving the application(pictures, videos, gifs, memes, Youtube videos, etc.), are high on law enforcement’s radar and many children have been caught in the acts of sexting or dating on these applications.

Along with these sexting applications available, everyone should be aware of their digital reputation. Your digital reputation is who you are on the internet or everything that you ever post. For anyone using social media, when you post anything, anywhere it is permanent. For students especially it’s important to remember that anyone can see what you post, this includes perspective colleges and perspective job managers.

The topic of social media is a touchy subject for any high school student and their parental guardian(s) because it’s unpredictable and it’s changing everyday. The most important part of this Speaker’s Series to take home is when there is internet access there needs to be trust and common sense for the safety of everyone. You should always keep evidence of anything that law enforcement needs to get involved in.

We want to keep our teenagers safe from any possibility of danger over social media, such as recent events have shown us, emphasizing what the Speaker’s Series captured in explaining internet safety. Be safe and remember “don’t ask, don’t send, and don’t pass it along”!