Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a challenge facing many families these days, how to keep kids safe on social media. On this episode of the Supercast, we have a candid conversation with one school psychologist who's working hard to educate families and others about protecting kids and building trust when it comes to the safe and smart use of social media.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Dustin Fullmer, school psychologist at Copper Hills High School, and also an instructor at the Jordan Family Ed Center, where Thursday, January 13th, from 7:00-8:30 PM, he's offering an internet safety class, a class that he offers every quarter. Dustin, thanks for talking with us.

Dustin Fullmer:
Thanks for having me here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Dustin, tell us, everyone's talking about social media right now. I think some really difficult things have been happening as a result of social media and it's increased stress across the board. No matter what your age. Tell me what you are talking about right now with social media. What are some of the things for us to be watching for and for parents and others to think about?

Dustin Fullmer:
Yeah, definitely. So social media is one of those things that's been a double edged sword in our society. Where it's great for connectivity. It's great for being able to keep in touch with people you love and hold dear to yourself and maybe don't see every day. But then yes, it's also leading to a lot of issues that we see constantly. Including things that we've seen this year, even in the schools with those different TikTok challenges of ransacking the school. Here at Copper Hills, where I'm a school psychologist, we even had a bathroom closed for almost two months, just because we had those issues with those challenges. And so I do in my class talk specifically about those types of things. By watching out for those different challenges, making sure that the things that your kids are accessing are positive and uplifting and not bringing them down or challenging them to do dangerous or just criminal kind of things. As well as just making sure that they understand the complexities of the internet because as we have more accessibility to it all, I think kids are losing touch a little bit with just what it is that is happening on there.

For example, some of the topics I cover in this class; I cover things such as you're not as anonymous as you think you are online. It's really easy to know exactly who it is that's posting things. Even if your username is something vague, it has nothing to do with your name. It's very easy to know who you are. That the internet also has the best memory out there. That things that are deleted and don't really stay deleted, that's stored somewhere out there. And so it's just good for kids to know these types of things and for parents to know that as well, to teach their kids about it. So that way maybe we make better decisions down the road.

Anthony Godfrey:
I have a 12 year old and I do try to have some controls in place, but I also worry that there are some things that I'm not doing that maybe I should be doing. What are some things that you advise parents to watch for when they want to be involved with social media and their child's interaction with