Instagram, Social Media, Kids, and Digital

Footprints

Marti WestonGeorgetown Day School

January 30, 2013

Presented at Bryn Mawr School

• We all leave digital footprints.

• All of our footprints intersect with the footprints of others.

Digital Footprint Videofrom

Harvard's Berkman Center

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/projects/digitalnatives/2008/08/digitalshadows

Think of these snow tracks as a metaphor for digital footprints.

Let’s Explore An App

Instagram

This school year it's the number one photo/social media site for people age 12 - 14, with plenty of children younger signing on.

-- Nielsenvia Anne Collier (Net Family News)

Christian Science Monitor

Marti Weston - January 30, 2013

Children are supposed to be 13 before they use Instagram -- but many are not.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/for-children-a-lie-on-facebook-has-consequences-study-finds/

• Instagram was purchased by Facebook.

• For some time the company was keeping it separate from the FB social network.

• Terms of use kerfuffle in December 2012.

A child leaves digital footprints no matter what age is registered.

COPPA

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

http://www.coppa.org

Children, for the purpose of the bill, are defined as people under the age of 13.

How Do Sites Comply?

By stating that access at the site is limited to people who are age 13 and older.

How do they ensure that the people using the site are 13 and above?

• Self reporting.

This means that they ask people to add a birth year that makes clear how old they are as they sign up to use the site.

Pew Center for Internet & American Life

(Most of my charts come from this report.)

Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Teens-and-social-media/Part-1/Internet-adoption.aspx

Notice that Instagram is not even on the Pew's 2011 data.

Beginning at age 10, quite a few kids tend to disregard age requirements. According to the Pew research by age 12 it's nearly 50 percent.

The Big Problem?

How do we build strong digital citizens if early on they are essentially making up things?

Many parents say that they encourage this for the sake of their kids' privacy.

Conundrum for Parents and Schools?

-- Half of the people feel the age requirements are silly.

-- Half of the people take them extremely seriously.

Instagram -- Our Case Study

So What is Instagram? It's an APP!

• Can be downloaded to a digital device.

• Encourages users to share pictures.

• Welcomes-facilitates networking, chatting, and commenting about the photos.

• Allows all sorts of filters and effects to be applied to pictures -- modifying them and changing them.

How to Get a Picture

• From your digital device• By taking pictures with your digital

device.• By receiving pictures from others on

your device• You cannot upload from a computer.• Instagram encourages spontaneity --

not always the best idea when combining kids, digital devices, and digital material.

It’s playful!

Instagram Terms of UseThe Instagram site states that it is not for

children under the age of 13. Many parents and educators feel that even slightly older teens should not use it.

If you’re 12 years old, there isn’t even a year to choose when signing up. Instagram has strict Terms of Use and Community Guidelines, and they make the age requirement clear as can be for new users.

YourSphere for Parentings -- http://internet-safety.yoursphere.com/2012/02/instagram-is-it-okay-for-kids-what-parents-need-to-know/

Without a fair amount of profile tweaking an adolescent's content on Instagram is extremely public.

Let's learn a bit more.

What's a Filter or Effect?

• With one tap it's possible to make changes in your photo, sometimes hardly noticeable and at other times significant.

• A picture with one tap can be blurred made to look like it came from another era.

• A filter can frame a picture.

What the Kids Especially Like

• The ability to add blur effects so the focus is on one thing

• Modification is REALLY interesting for 10-12 year olds.

• Following people and getting them to follow you.

• Commenting

Facebook Note

Even though Instagram is staying separate from Facebook, the first things it asks after you make a login name and password is whether you want to use your Facebook info.

Signing On ...

As soon as you agree to connect with Facebook you get this reminder about all the info that will be shared.

When I declined to share with all of these people, Instagram persisted. I had several more opportunities to say "no."

Lots of my Facebook contacts

were recommended as

Instagram connections.

I was relieved that it did not immediately import pictures. Despite connecting with FB, I had a clean slate.

Menu Bar

Home Popular Camera News Profile

My InstagramHome

Page

The profile page that asks for details -- options. Notice the privacy button.

Instagram offers this message when I try to make photos private.

Example of a page that Instagram suggested I might want to follow.

Six Must-Know Instagram Tips for Newbies

• Change the privacy setting for your photo feed.

• Double-check your Facebook sharing settings.

• Block random followers.• Edit your Instagram profile.• Wipe photos off Instagram's photo

map.• Delete photos from your photo feed.(http://heresthethingblog.com/2012/08/21/6-privacy-tips-instagram-

newbies/)

And …the App Innovation Never

Stops

SnapChat

Digital Footprints

Good News for Parents. Kids do listen.

Advice Statistics from Pew

Teens Report Greatest Influence on Cell Phones

Teens Are Increasingly Savvy About Privacy --

Pew

So children to listen to and watch parents – even adolescents.

What kind of model are you?

What Can a Parent Do?

• Figure out what you are going to do about the COPPA issue.

• How are you going to frame the issue to your children if you are comfortable about allowing them to bypass the COPPA age rules.

• Avoid confusing privacy with making things up.

What Can a Parent Do?

Think about what you want your child's profile to look like at various ages when people "Google" them for information. Encourage your child to think about this.

• When your child babysits.

• When your child joins a team.

• When your child aims for his first internship.

What Can a Parent Do?

• Do not let children in elementary school or middle school download their own apps to mobile devices.

• Examine their mobile devices for unexpected apps. Learn to use the unfamiliar ones.

What Can a Parent Do?

• Talk about privacy.

• Talk about online profiles. Google your child (and use

yourself as a demo).

• Talk about photos and images.

• Learn as much about social media as you can -- be hands on.

• You don't necessarily need to friend your child, but you do need to know what is going on.

What Can a Parent Do?

What Can the School and Parents do Together?• Emphasize Digital Citizenship -- As

a part of the yearly themes, pick several digital citizenship themes to emphasize schoolwide.

• Marti's Teaching Tolerance blog post - The Digital Citizenship Minute, http://www.tolerance.org/blog/digital-citizenship-minute

To Learn More About Instagram?

Read my blog post

@MediaTechParenting.net

We have no user-friendly erasers in virtual life.

When we are proactive and in control of our digital dossier (and those apps) we increase our privacy.

Blogs for Parents

• NetFamilyNews - http://www.netfamilynews.org

• Ask the Mediatrician - Children’s Hospital Boston - http://cmch.typepad.com/mediatrician/

• KQED Mindshift - http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/

• Mashable - http://mashable.com

• Techlicious - http://www.techlicious.com

• MediaTechParenting - http://MediaTechParenting.net

• Commen Sense Media http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/blog

Video Resources for Parents

• Truth in Numbers: Everything, According to Wikipedia - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0960864/plotsummary

• Digital Dossier Video - Harvard’s Berkman Center - http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/projects/digitalnatives/2008/08/digitalshadows

• Google’s How a Message Moves (uses people as a metaphor) - world.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKAInP_tmHk

• PBS Frontline - Growing Up Digital http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

Good Books for 21st Century Parenting

• Alone Together - Sherry Turkle

• Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives - John Palfrey

• Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Guide for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age - William Powers

More Good Books

• Net Smart - Howard Rheingold

• Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload - William Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel

• Kids and Credibility - Andrew Flanagin and Miriam Metzger (MacArthur Foundation)

Research

• Teens, Kindness, and Cruelty on Social Media Sites - Pew Center for Internet and American Life, N0vember, 2011

• Children’s Media Use and Sleep Problems - Kaiser Family Foundation, June 2008

• Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America - Common Sense Media, October 2011

• Social Media and Young Adults - Pew Center for Internet and American Life, February 2010

More Research

• Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy - Pew Center for Internet and American Life, November 2012

• The Online Generation Gap: Contrasting Attitudes and Behaviors of Parents and Teens - Submitted to the Family Online Safety Institute

• Children Teens and Entertainment Media: The view from the Classroom - Common Sense Media Research by Hart Research Associates, November 14th 2012

• Teens and Mobile Phones - Pew Center for Internet and American Life, April 2010

Marti WestonGeorgetown Day School

MWeston@gds.org

Tweeting @MartiWestonBlogs

MediaTechParenting.netAsOurParentsAge.net

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