By Chad Bates and Miguel Zambrano
Technology is changing rapidly, and no doubt for many parents it is difficult to stay abreast of all the latest websites our students visit. Social media sites like Facebook, Skype and Instagram when used appropriately have many potential benefits. These sites provide a wonderful way to stay connected and to strengthen relationships with friends and family in our home countries, as well providing opportunities to build many new friendships here at ISB. Like anything it is important that any online activities are done in moderation. Every now and then however we come across sites that we see very little value in our students joining, in fact only negatives. Last year I published a cautionary article about Ask.FM.
We are now starting to see a disturbing trend where more and more social media sites, more specifically ‘chat’ sites are promoting anonymity and actively encourage users to chat with random strangers. A couple of sites that we have come across are “Chatroulette” and “Omegle”. The sites were not developed with Internet safety in mind, far from it. Both allow for video chat, and conversations are started with complete strangers. This is obviously something we would not encourage; hence we block both sites at ISB. While both these sites say you should be over 18, we know from experience some of our students may be curious to check them out.
Teachers and parents need to work together to reinforce positive behavior online. We would encourage parents to continually have conversations with your child about which sites are appropriate and which are not. The school-issued laptops have built-in ‘Parental Controls’ that can assist parents monitoring online activities. If you have not yet had a Parent Account setup, you can apply to have one setup through this form.
If you have any questions or need any further assistance, feel free to contact the MS Technology Coordinator: Mr Zambrano, miguelz@isb.ac.th