The Trickle: What to do when your teen is constantly checking their phone

Submitted by Lynn Jatania on 10 Jul 2020.

Lynn JataniaOur older teens, aged 17 and 15, have smartphones. They aren’t big users of social media, but they do get messages from friends fairly often on Instagram, Hangouts and Discord.

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Cell Phones and Texting, Digital Health, Excessive Internet Use, Internet & Mobile, Parents

Post-quarantine rules reset

Submitted by Lynn Jatania on 25 Jun 2020.

Lynn JataniaThere are still a lot of unknowns about COVID-19, but for now at least, our province has started to open up a bit. Parks and beaches are open, most stores and malls are opening, and we’re even able to get haircuts again.

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Cell Phones and Texting, Digital Health, Excessive Internet Use, Internet & Mobile, Parents

Your child’s first phone: how old should they be?

Submitted by Lynn Jatania on 20 Apr 2020.

Lynn JataniaI remember when the iPad was first released back in 2010. Shortly after it came out, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were spotted at a restaurant letting their daughter Suri, who was four years old at the time, play on their iPad while they waited for their food.

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Cell Phones and Texting, Digital Health, Internet & Mobile, Parents, Resources

Internet memories and storytelling: what do you keep?

Submitted by Lynn Jatania on 13 Apr 2020.

Lynn JataniaMy middle daughter hates looking over my shoulder when I’m on my Instagram account and seeing that I have many, many unwatched “stories.”

Stories in Instagram are usually short video clips that are temporary – they exist for 24 hours and then they are gone. You can save favourite stories as ‘highlights’ that live on your profile, but for the most part they’re intended to disappear.

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Blogging, Internet & Mobile, Parents, Social Networking

Young Canadians Speak Out: A Qualitative Research Report on Privacy and Consent

Submitted by MediaSmarts on 31 Mar 2020.

Informed Youth Promote Clarity for All

It’s something we’ve all done before: scrolled past a wall of text to click “I Agree” with no idea what we’ve agreed to. Then, when we’re using the platform, messages like “We’ve made some changes to our Terms and Conditions” simply remind us that we probably didn’t read them in the first place. Our world is becoming more and more influenced by the data that’s being collected about us. For young people in particular, this can lead to serious and unexpected consequences that could affect their entire lives.

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Internet & Mobile, Privacy

Speak Up! Your guide to changing the world, online and off

Thanks to the internet and social media like Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok, it’s easier than ever to share your views and encourage others to join you in making change. And, due to research conducted as part of the Digital Ecosystem Research Challenge (DERC), we know a lot about how some Canadians are using digital media to get involved in politics. This guide will help show you the ways you can use social networks to make your voice heard and make a difference.

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Keeping up with kids in a wireless world

Submitted by MediaSmarts on 09 Mar 2020.

By Samantha McAleese, research associate at MediaSmarts and
David Fowler, vice-president, marketing and communications at CIRA.

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Digital Health, Internet & Mobile, Parents, Privacy, Social Networking

What should I do if someone sends me a sext?

So, you’ve received a sext that you didn’t ask for. Now what?

Delete it right away

If someone sends you a sext that you didn’t ask for, delete it. You can also ask the person not to send more if you feel comfortable doing so.

Block the person

On social: If they keep sending you sexts (or other unwanted messages) that you don’t want, you can block them. Most social networks have Block and Mute functions.

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Talking to youth about forwarding sexts

As a parent, you may find some relief in learning that fewer youth take and send sexts (nude or semi-nude photos) than you may think. However, almost half of youth who have taken and sent a sext say that the recipient then forwarded that image to other people without their consent. This culture of sharing among youth is a major concern and can have devastating consequences for the person in the picture and the person who forwards it.

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There’s no excuse: confronting moral disengagement in sexting

In this lesson, students learn about the “sneaky excuses” that can convince us to do things that we know are wrong. After learning about the different types of these excuses, students watch and discuss a series of videos in which the excuses are used to justify forwarding sexts without the original sender’s consent. Finally, students create their own videos in which the excuses used to justify sharing sexts with other people are illustrated and most importantly, countered.

English

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