HOT TOPIC: Y8 ON SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA

VIBE LIFE SCARLETT COLWELL, DAIZIE WAITE, ISAAC WILDGUST, MAX TUPPER, EVIE THOMPSON, ADAM CROWTHER, FLORA HOWARTH, YASMIN MYTON, FERN TOPLISS, TOBY MOORE, Y8

Year 8 discuss how to have fun and avoid making a fool of yourself–or worse–on social media.

HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA? Daizie I use it mostly to keep in touch with friends. I like looking through everyone’s day to day lives and their stories. It is part of my social life.

Scarlett I’m the same. I have private accounts and I don’t follow anyone that I don’t know. I use it to share what I’m doing with my friends and see what they’re doing as well.

Adam I also use it for entertainment when I’m bored, like cartoons and jokes. The Explore tab on Instagram recommends stuff to look at and it’s funny.

Flora I spend 14 hours on social media a week. It might sound a lot but that is literally all of my screen time. I’ll be chatting to my friends, looking at other people’s lives, famous people, clothes. You can look at everything you want all in one place.

Yasmin People can also use it to express themselves. It could backfire because people can obviously comment and they may say nasty things, but there are lots of people being honest and creative and

sharing things, and that can be really positive.

HOW DO YOU STAY SAFE WHILST USING SOCIAL MEDIA? Evie The social media sites can be dangerous, but on most of them it’s your decision because you can choose how to use them. You have to be careful and use your common sense. For example, on Snapchat you should set it to ‘ghost mode’ otherwise people can see your location. You can choose to keep your accounts private and only approve friend requests from people you know. It’s your choice.

Yasmin One thing that I still have to remind myself of now is that if I post something, even on my private story, people can take a screenshot of that and post it publicly on anything. They can put it anywhere.

Flora Just this morning, I got asked to send something which I really didn’t want to send, so I blocked the person. There’s always a way to get help. There’s three little dots at the top of every post, if you press that, you get various options. You can report it, block the person, unfollow, or share it - be careful not to press the wrong one! And if you’re worried, talk to someone.

WHAT IS AN INFLUENCER? HAVE YOU EVER BOUGHT OR DONE SOMETHING BECAUSE OF ONE? Fern An influencer is someone popular or famous who makes other people want to be like them. They might influence people to do good things but also bad things like they might influence you to do shoplifting.

Yasmin It’s someone people look up to and who has lot of followers or subscribers on social media. Some influencers are paid to promote things with brand deals. Sometimes that’s helpful but sometimes I think they’re just doing it for the money.

Scarlett When I was quite a bit younger and Smiggle and slime was all the rage, I used to buy lots of things I’d seen in Youtube videos, like different ingredients to make slime, or those hair bows.

WHAT AGE SHOULD YOU GET A SMART PHONE? Fern The world is getting more and more high tech and children are growing up in that world and should learn about it. I had an iPad when I was little, which I could use to play games or text my family. It had to be on wifi so I could only use it at home.

When you start getting a bit more independent towards going to high school you need to start having more of your own responsibilities, like maybe get a basic phone first and social media later.

Isaac I think that you need a phone when you get into high school so that if there’s an emergency or something then you can call your parents. And then it really depends what you are going do with it if you have it before them.

Adam I think when you have social media depends when you mature because there’s lots of bad things that you can do or that can happen to you on it and you’ve got to deal with it.

Fern Apps have age minimum ages, but it’s very easy to lie, so it doesn’t work that well.

Flora Yeah, it’s all about what you do on it, because some people do stupid things but they could be in Year 7 doing that, or they could be 35.

Yasmin As well as it being our responsibility to make safe choices, I think people’s parents should check it too and make sure that you know what you’re doing.

Flora Lots of my family follow me on social media. My mum can see everything that I post. I can trust her. And if there’s anything a bit dodgy, I’ll just tell her and she will help me sort it out.

WHAT CAN GO WRONG? Flora You see some people post really bad pictures! You might post something on your private profile, but one person could send it to all the people in your form and then one of those people could send it to everyone in the school, it keeps growing and it gets you down. It might haunt you on the internet forever. You have to remember that when you decide what to post in the first place.

Fern As soon as you press send, it’s gone out of your control.

Scarlett Social media should be used for having fun and sharing with your friends and messaging them. But then it can also be used for the wrong reasons like bullying.

Flora Some people say horrible things about other people on social media, things they’d never say in ‘real life’ but it can be just as hurtful. I look at people’s Yolos and it’s just horrific. That’s this app you can add on to Snapchat, where you can ask for comments and then anyone can type an anonymous message and you don’t know who it is.

Scarlett Sometimes kids can download apps that are too old for them, or spend money in games without really knowing what they are doing.

Daizie I’ll admit that I was that very dumb child. I made a password and I spent loads of money on games–‘My Little Pony’ to be specific.

Evie There are ways to to stop that from happening. I have this thing where if I try to download a new app, it sends a notification to my mum and she can go and look at the app and decide whether to approve it or not. If she doesn’t then I can’t get the app. It means she can keep track of what apps I am using and we can have conversations about what is a good idea.

Isaac Some apps can be quite sneaky. Those terms and conditions when you first download the app – you never read it do you? Some of them have things in saying you give permission for them to see your location or your information. There’s been privacy issues with some apps. TER?

DOES SOCIAL MEDIA MAKE YOU FEEL UNDER PRESSURE? Isaac Nowadays, there are so many new ways that can affect people’s self esteem, and social media can definitely be one of those.

Flora When you post something, you feel a bit like ‘oh I quite like this photo I’ll post it’ and when it’s been up for 12 minutes and you get only three likes and one comment. It feels a bit sad.

Fern You can see if people have viewed it as well, so you know if people have viewed it but not liked it, and that doesn’t feel good.

Scarlett And because other people can see how many likes you’ve got, then they might say ‘Oh, you only got 70 likes on that. You must not be that popular’ or use it against you. If you start worrying about it too much, then it can get worse and worse.

Toby But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t measure anything that actually matters about you so it’s best not to worry about it.

WHERE TO FIND MORE: For more advice and support for teens and parents, or fun quizzes and games to learn about online safety, try these:

www.saferinternet.org.uk www.internetmatters.org BBC Own It app

OUR TOP TIPS

Evie Be careful who you let follow you and who you follow because you may not know who it is. Max If you get something hurtful said to you or you are worried about something, tell someone. Don’t just bottle it up or it can just get worse. Fern Don’t get competitive or worry about how many likes, or how many comments, or how many followers you have. It doesn’t matter! Toby Don’t feel like you have to do anything online. Remember that you can be in control of it too. Isaac Do your research about apps so you can be smart. Find out about and check your privacy settings and how to block or report content you don’t want to see. Scarlett What you say can affect you later in life, so never say anything that you’ll regret. Don’t be stupid. Never post or share anything racist, sexist, or mean against anybody. Keep it nice! Flora Pretend your grandma’s gonna see what you do and think, ‘would your grandma be happy seeing what you’re sending?’ If not, don’t post it. Adam Above all, just enjoy it, keep it fun. And if it’s not - get off it and go do something else instead!