By TR Robertson
The monthly YES Carlsbad Community Collaborative, sponsored by the Carlsbad Unified School District, heard from Cyber Educator Jon Moffat as he covered the pros and cons of the social media world surrounding today’s parents and their children. This social media world can deal with social networking, cell phones, video games and many other issues. In a power point presentation Jon discussed many of the pit falls and programs available, such as the teens thought process in the digital age to the importance of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline teens can use to help a friend who is dealing with self-harm issues. He also went over the growing concern with AI Chat GPT and the discussions that this has caused. Jon pointed out that the Chat GPT is not connected to the internet and not up to current events for the various topics it covers. He also said it can suffer from “hallucinations” on the material making inaccurate statements. A Study.com survey said 25% of those responding use AI. Jon said properly used, there are advantages to AI. Sites like Photo Math, Fotor and Readwise were recommended as sites that could be checked out. Some of the social media sites covered that should be strictly monitored by parents included Tik Toc and Roblox Settings. He said most young people don’t understand all aspects of these sites. Voice chat games, scams, horror games, the Chat app Discord and many more can prove to be problematic for young people. Parents should also monitor inappropriate statements and photos on Tik Toc and Instagram. Young people and parents should also know that deleting accounts is hard once they have been established. Some of the questions parents should be concerned with are knowing who their kids are talking to on sites and what they are talking about, as well as what sites they are on. Jon pointed out that many of the young people indicate that they are over 13 years of age on some of the sites when they are actually much younger. There were a multitude of other topics covered in the presentation. Parents can attend a Cyber Safety Workshop at the Pine Community Center on October 24th at 6 pm to hear more about the social media world.
Upcoming Events:
• Cyber Safety Workshop – Parent University – Pine Community Center – Oct. 24 – 6 pm
• Drug Awareness with Teens – Pine Community Center – Oct. 26 – 6 pm
• Volunteers needed at Jefferson Elementary School – email Rob Brown – Mon-Thur – 9am-2pm – rbrown@carlsbadusd.net
• Red Ribbon Week – October 23-27
