Teen Safe

June 8, 2015 | Calvin Bryant

Once a popular social media app or website for students garners the attention of parents and adults, a new one pops up! Obviously it is impossible to monitor everything our students do, and nor would we want to, as it wouldn’t allow them to make mistakes, from which they can learn. However, there are services out there that can monitor the texts, calls, and sites on our student’s phones.

I was watching a CNBC special called “Dishonesty: The Truth About Lies,” and saw an interesting study regarding truthful behavior. The study went to two universities and asked students to take a test. At one university, students had signed a code of conduct policy at the beginning of the year acknowledging the policy regarding cheating. However, students were not reminded of this, and many students “cheated” on this particular test given to them. Meanwhile… at the other university, they asked students to re-sign a form reminding them of the code of conduct policy they signed at the beginning of the year (the school actually had NOT made them sign such a policy at the beginning of the year). And NONE of the students cheated, simply because they had been reminded right before the test to act with integrity.

We can encourage truthful and righteous behavior through consistent reminders that we are disciples of Christ. Check out the articles below:

Discussion questions with MS students – How do you feel about having a parent/adult being able to see your social media? Does it concern you or are you ok with it? What if Jesus saw your posts (cliché question, but still powerful nonetheless)? Are your comments encouraging or discouraging to others? Do you understand things are not really private/anonymous?