Instagram, Social Media,
Kids, and Digital Footprints
Marti Weston
Georgetown Day School
January 30, 2013
Presented at Bryn Mawr School
• We all leave digital
footprints.
• All of our footprints
intersect with the
footprints of others.
Digital Footprint Video
from
Harvard's Berkman Center
http://cyber.law.harvar
d.edu/interactive/project
s/digitalnatives/2008/08/
digitalshadows
Think of
these snow
tracks as a
metaphor for
digital
footprints.
Let’s Explore An App
Instagram
This school year it's the number one photo/social
media site for people age 12 - 14, with plenty of
children younger signing on.
-- Nielsen
via Anne Collier (Net Family News) Christian
Science Monitor
Marti Weston - January 30, 2013
Children are supposed to be 13 before
they use Instagram -- but many are not.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/for-children-a-lie-on-facebookhas-consequences-study-finds/
• Instagram was purchased by Facebook.
• For some time the company was keeping it
separate from the FB social network.
• Terms of use kerfuffle in December 2012.
A child leaves digital footprints
no matter what age is registered.
COPPA
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
http://www.coppa.org
Children, for the purpose of the bill, are
defined as people under the age of 13.
How Do Sites Comply?
By stating that access at the
site is limited to people who
are age 13 and older.
How do they ensure that the people
using the site are 13 and above?
• Self reporting.
This means that they ask people to add a
birth year that makes clear how old they
are as they sign up to use the site.
Pew Center for Internet &
American Life
(Most of my charts come from this report.)
Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social
Network Sites
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Teens
-and-social-media/Part-1/Internetadoption.aspx
Notice that Instagram is not even on
the Pew's 2011 data.
Beginning at age
10, quite a few
kids tend to
disregard age
requirements.
According to the
Pew research by
age 12 it's nearly
50 percent.
The Big Problem?
How do we build strong digital
citizens if early on they are
essentially making up things?
Many parents say that they encourage this for the sake of their kids' privacy.
Conundrum for Parents and
Schools?
-- Half of the people feel the age
requirements are silly.
-- Half of the people take them
extremely seriously.
Instagram -Our Case Study
So What is Instagram?
It's an APP!
• Can be downloaded to a digital device.
• Encourages users to share pictures.
• Welcomes-facilitates networking, chatting,
•
and commenting about the photos.
Allows all sorts of filters and effects to be
applied to pictures -- modifying them and
changing them.
How to Get a Picture
• From your digital device
• By taking pictures with your digital device.
• By receiving pictures from others on your
device
• You cannot upload from a computer.
• Instagram encourages spontaneity -- not
always the best idea when combining kids,
digital devices, and digital material.
It’s playful!
Instagram Terms of Use
The Instagram site states that it is not for children
under the age of 13. Many parents and educators
feel that even slightly older teens should not use it.
If you’re 12 years old, there isn’t even a year to choose
when signing up. Instagram has strict Terms of Use
and Community Guidelines, and they make the age
requirement clear as can be for new users.
YourSphere for Parentings -- http://internet-safety.yoursphere.com/2012/02/instagram-is-it-okay-for-kids-what-parentsneed-to-know/
Without a fair amount
of profile tweaking an
adolescent's content
on Instagram is
extremely public.
Let's learn a
bit more.
What's a Filter or Effect?
• With one tap it's possible to make changes
in your photo, sometimes hardly
noticeable and at other times significant.
• A picture with one tap can be blurred
made to look like it came from another
era.
• A filter can frame a picture.
What the Kids Especially Like
• The ability to add blur effects so the focus
is on one thing
• Modification is REALLY interesting for
10-12 year olds.
• Following people and getting them to
follow you.
• Commenting
Facebook Note
Even though Instagram is staying
separate from Facebook, the first
things it asks after you make a login
name and password is whether you
want to use your Facebook info.
Signing
On ...
As soon as you
agree to connect
with Facebook
you get this
reminder about
all the info that
will be shared.
Lots of my
Facebook contacts
were
recommended as
Instagram
connections.
When I
declined to share
with all of these
people,
Instagram
persisted. I had
several more
opportunities to
say "no."
I was relieved
that it did not
immediately
import
pictures.
Despite
connecting
with FB, I had
a clean slate.
Menu Bar
Home
Popular Camera
News
Profile
My
Instagram
Home Page
The profile
page that
asks for
details -options.
Notice the
privacy
button.
Instagram
offers this
message when
I try to make
photos
private.
Example of a
page that
Instagram
suggested I
might want to
follow.
Six Must-Know Instagram
Tips for Newbies
• Change the privacy setting for your photo
feed.
• Double-check your Facebook sharing
settings.
• Block random followers.
• Edit your Instagram profile.
• Wipe photos off Instagram's photo map.
• Delete photos from your photo feed.
(http://heresthethingblog.com/2012/08/21/6-privacy-tips-instagram-newbies/)
And …
the App Innovation Never Stops
SnapChat
Digital Footprints
Good News for Parents.
Kids do listen.
Advice Statistics from Pew
Teens Report Greatest
Influence on Cell Phones
Teens Are Increasingly
Savvy About Privacy -- Pew
So children to listen to and
watch parents – even
adolescents.
What kind of model are you?
What Can a Parent Do?
•
•
•
Figure out what you are going to do about the
COPPA issue.
How are you going to frame the issue to your
children if you are comfortable about allowing
them to bypass the COPPA age rules.
Avoid confusing privacy with making things up.
What Can a Parent Do?
Think about what you want your child's
profile to look like at various ages when
people "Google" them for information.
Encourage your child to think about this.
• When your child
babysits.
• When your child
joins a team.
• When your child
aims for his first
internship.
What Can a Parent Do?
•
• Do not let children in elementary school
or middle school download their own
apps to mobile devices.
• Examine their mobile devices for
unexpected apps. Learn to use the
unfamiliar ones.
What Can a Parent Do?
•
•
Talk about privacy.
• Talk about online profiles.
Google your child (and use yourself as
a demo).
• Talk about photos and images.
What Can a Parent Do?
• Learn as much about social media as
you can -- be hands on.
• You don't necessarily need to friend
your child, but you do need to know
what is going on.
What Can the School and
Parents do Together?
• Emphasize Digital Citizenship -- As a part
of the yearly themes, pick several digital
citizenship themes to emphasize
schoolwide.
• Marti's Teaching Tolerance blog post -
The Digital Citizenship Minute,
http://www.tolerance.org/blog/digitalcitizenship-minute
To Learn More
About Instagram?
Read my blog post
@
MediaTechParenting.net
We have no userfriendly erasers in virtual
life.
When we are proactive
and in control of our
digital dossier (and those
apps) we increase our
privacy.
Blogs for Parents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
NetFamilyNews - http://www.netfamilynews.org
Ask the Mediatrician - Children’s Hospital Boston http://cmch.typepad.com/mediatrician/
KQED Mindshift - http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/
Mashable - http://mashable.com
Techlicious - http://www.techlicious.com
MediaTechParenting http://MediaTechParenting.net
Commen Sense Media
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/blog
Video Resources for Parents
• Truth in Numbers: Everything, According to Wikipedia http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0960864/plotsummary
•
Digital Dossier Video - Harvard’s Berkman Center http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/projects/digitalnative
s/2008/08/digitalshadows
•
Google’s How a Message Moves (uses people as a metaphor) world.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKAInP_tmHk
•
PBS Frontline - Growing Up Digital
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/
Good Books
for 21st Century Parenting
•
•
•
Alone Together - Sherry Turkle
Born Digital: Understanding the First
Generation of Digital Natives - John Palfrey
Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Guide for
Building a Good Life in the Digital Age William Powers
More Good Books
•
•
•
Net Smart - Howard Rheingold
Blur: How to Know What's True in the
Age of Information Overload - William
Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
Kids and Credibility - Andrew Flanagin
and Miriam Metzger (MacArthur Foundation)
Research
• Teens, Kindness, and Cruelty on Social Media Sites - Pew Center
for Internet and American Life, N0vember, 2011
• Children’s Media Use and Sleep Problems - Kaiser Family
Foundation, June 2008
• Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America - Common Sense
Media, October 2011
• Social Media and Young Adults - Pew Center for Internet and
American Life, February 2010
More Research
• Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy - Pew Center for Internet and
American Life, November 2012
• The Online Generation Gap: Contrasting Attitudes and Behaviors
of Parents and Teens - Submitted to the Family Online Safety
Institute
• Children Teens and Entertainment Media: The view from the
Classroom - Common Sense Media Research by Hart Research
Associates, November 14th 2012
• Teens and Mobile Phones - Pew Center for Internet and American
Life, April 2010
Marti Weston
Georgetown Day School
MWeston@gds.org
Tweeting @MartiWeston
Blogs
MediaTechParenting.net
AsOurParentsAge.net
GDSTechTips.Wordpress.com