Students In Marshall County Hear Internet Safety Presentation
Emma Delk Trending
Marshall County Schools fifth and sixth graders learned what to do and what not to do with the devices in their pockets during a presentation by internet safety expert Jesse Weinberger on Monday.
In addition to giving students tips and tricks for navigating the internet safely, Weinberger will give a second presentation on March 18 to teach parents about the dangers of adolescent phone use.
Weinberger, whose background is in software development, has been writing and speaking about internet safety for the past 15 years. Her presentation on Monday shared the title of her child digital safety book, "The Boogeyman Exists and He's in Your Child's Back Pocket."
Weinberger said her general recommendation for adolescent phone use, based on the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, is that children under 13 should not be permitted to use social media. She noted the statistics of the age of onset pornography consumption in children being 8 years old and the age of onset pornography addiction in children is 11, meaning that "the youngest kids are engaging in the riskiest behaviors.
"Waiting until a child is 13 before they have social media access does not solve everything but it certainly has a child miss a lot of years of immersion in extremist and sexual content," Weinberger said. "You're setting your kids up for success if you wait way longer."
Since Weinberger was presenting to children under 13 on Monday, her presentation informed students who had already been given devices how to navigate the internet safely. This included how to deal with cyberbullying, sexting and sexual predators.
In addition to teaching students how to navigate the internet safely, Weinberger informed them about the psychological impact of their phone use. She noted that social media is isolative, meaning that its use increases loneliness among adolescents.
"The more time people, both kids and adults, spend on devices, the higher the rates of depression and anxiety," Weinberger said. "Social media is supposed to be the thing that connects people, but it does the exact opposite."
Weinberger also collected data from the fifth and sixth graders regarding their social media use, and handed out anonymous paper surveys asking students what they would change about their digital behavior. She said she would use the data collected to display to parents during the March 18 presentation.
"Parents sometimes fall under the delusion that their child would never engage in risky behavior online, so they have nothing to be concerned about," Weinberger said. "The unifying thread across families, no matter the school district or state, is that children own devices when they are too young. The later you give your kids a device, the better off they will be."
In her parent-focused presentation, Weinberger said she would teach attendees about parental complicity in adolescent phone use.
"Parents tell their children they cannot be on their phone at the dinner table, but then dad is checking on his phone during dinner," Weinberger said.
The March 18 presentation will also help parents detect when their child is engaging in dangerous behavior online, including sexting, sexual predation and sex trafficking. She will also review phone apps children could be using to hide illicit materials such as pornography.
Weinberger's March 18 presentation will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the John Marshall High School Performing Arts Center. The presentation is free and open for anyone to attend.