Liz Repking Speaks to Parents and Boys About Cyber Safety
Cyber safety expert, Liz Repking, visited St. Bernard’s School last month to speak with parents and students. She began her visit by speaking at a Parents Association meeting and then spoke with two groups of students: boys from grades V-VII and boys from grades VIII-IX. Ms. Repking intentionally covered similar topics in all three sessions with the hope of creating a foundation for productive conversations between parents and sons about cyber safety.
Ms. Repking spoke with parents about the challenges of raising children in a hyper digital age. She helped parents improve their cyber confidence by describing specific websites and apps that teenagers tend to use and explained which ones offer privacy settings. She also highlighted the importance of providing an escape route for their children. She believes children need to know that there is a path to safety if they find themselves in unsafe situations. Too often children meet with online predators because they are afraid of getting in trouble. Ms. Repking stressed the importance of offering a “golden ticket” or “get out of jail free card” to help children avoid dangerous situations.
She offered advice about creating safe usernames, making sure their sons are on private networks, and ensuring that their sons actually know their social contacts. She stressed the importance of creating a healthy digital road map for their families and suggested they include their children when planning. Her family designated tech-free zones and has set aside tech-free time, which has been great for them.
Ms. Repking’s talks with St. B’s boys were similar to her talk with parents, but the structure was more of a discussion where she asked the boys questions and encouraged comments. She began both talks by discussing digital citizenship and the privileges and responsibilities associated with it. She explained how people could become anyone they wanted to be online, which sometimes makes it difficult to identify online predators. They discussed that a social network is a collection of friends, not a tally of random followers. Ms. Repking also introduced the concept of the “golden ticket” where boys could make an agreement with their parents for one free pass, encouraging boys to make safe decisions rather than decisions based on the fear of getting in trouble.
When talking about social media, Ms. Repking reminded boys that what they post online stays there forever, even after they think it has been deleted. She encouraged the boys to pause before they post and to think about “what would happen if…” She reminded boys that their posts affect their reputations, and they will not have a chance to defend what has been posted. Additionally, she explained how their online reputations could affect their futures. She encouraged boys in fifth, sixth, and seventh grades to be “Upstanders” by doing something nice to a person who is being targeted or bullied. Her discussion with the eighth and ninth graders expanded to include sexting and how their online reputations could affect college admissions.
Ms. Repking covered a remarkable amount of material through these sessions and built strong foundations for many conversations to continue. St. Bernard’s extends gratitude to Ms. Repking for teaching our community and for facilitating discussions about these important issues. The school also extends special thanks to the Parents Association for arranging Ms. Repking’s visit.
