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CA school tracks students' social media: Is it legal?

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The social media sites of all 13,000 students in Glendale, Calif.'s middle and high schools are now being monitored by a company called "Geo Listening." School officials hired the company to monitor students' comments so they can intervene when students discuss suicide, bullying, violence or substance abuse. John Blackstone reports.

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IF YOU THOUGHT THAT our social media obsessed world can get a little silly at times (maybe not just a little), you're not alone. This street art by artist iHeart will have you quietly smiling at clever depictions of people using social media.

This collection of street artwork was part of a project called A Sign Of The Times, and it skews the distinction between life on and off line. With some very interesting results.

Have a look...

A Sign Of The Times

Follow For Follow

Image Not Available

Nobody Likes Me

Selfie Aware

Tagging

Tumbling

Unblock User

You're Such A Poser

Download This Font

Some pretty awesome street art, by iHeart!

You can check out more of his exhibition pieces by visiting his website.

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This Social Media-Inspired Street Art Will Make You Smile

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IF YOU THOUGHT THAT our social media obsessed world can get a little silly at times (maybe not just a little), you're not alone. This street art by artist iHeart will have you quietly smiling at clever depictions of people using social media.

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Texting, blogs, Facebook, gaming and instant messages might seem, to some, to be just more reasons to stare at a computer screen.

Thinking like that is so 2008, any middle schooler will tell you. Now a study that looked at the online habits of 800 teenagers backs them up.

Researchers in the study, titled the Digital Youth Project and conducted primarily at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley, found that in our increasingly technological world, the constant communication that social networking provides is encouraging useful skills. The study looked at more than 5,000 hours of online observation and found that the digital world is creating new opportunities for young people to grapple with social norms, explore interests, develop technical skills and work on new forms of self-expression.

"There are myths about kids spending time online - that it is dangerous or making them lazy," says Mizuko Ito, lead author of the study, which will be the basis of a forthcoming book, "Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning With New Media." "But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age."

Co-author Lisa Tripp, now an assistant professor at Florida State University, says technology, including YouTube, iPods and podcasting, creates avenues for extending one's circle of friends, boosts self-directed learning and fosters independence.

"Certain technical skills in the coming years are not going to be just about consuming media," she says. "It is also going to be about producing media. It is not just about writing a blog, but also how to leave comments that say something. Learning to communicate like this is contributing to the general circulation of culture."

That means anything from a video clip to a profile page is going to reflect the self-expression skills one has, so teens might as well practice what will say who they are.

Social networking also contributes greatly to teens' extended friendships and interests, Ms. Tripp says. While the majority of teens use sites such as MySpace and Facebook to "hang out" with people they already know in real life, a smaller portion uses them to find like-minded people. Before social networking, the one kid in school who was, say, a fan of Godzilla or progressive politics might find himself isolated. These days, that youngster has peers everywhere.

"This kind of communication has let teens expand their social circle by common interests," Ms. Tripp says. "They can publicize and distribute their work to online audiences and become sort of a microexpert in that area." The study found that young people's learning with digital media often is more self-directed, with a freedom and autonomy that is less apparent than in a classroom. The researchers said youths usually respect one another's authority online, and they often are more motivated to learn from one another than from adults.

Parents, however, still have an important role to play when it comes to tweens, teens and social networking, the researchers say. They need to accept that technology is a necessary and important part of the culture for young people and, other experts say, be aware of with whom the teens are communicating.

Monica Vila, founder of theonlinemom.com, an online resource for digital-age parenting, says parents need to set parameters just as they would "at any other playground." "This kind of study puts a lot of facts behind the value of social networking," Ms. Vila says.

It is up to parents to monitor what is being expressed, she says. She recommends that parents "have a presence" in their child's online social network. That doesn't necessarily mean "friending," communicating and commenting, but it does mean having a password or knowing who your child's online friends are. One Fairfax County mother of a middle schooler, who asked that her name not be used to protect her daughter's privacy, says she was skeptical at first when her daughter wanted a Facebook page.

"I was hesitant for all the reasons we hear about, such as how it could bring in unwelcome visitors," the woman says, "but eventually I realized that this is the main medium for kids keeping in touch. It has gone from e-mail to IM to texting to Facebook in such a quick progression. [Social networking] is like the modern-day equivalent of the lunch table. If you are not on Facebook, then you are not in the loop."

The woman says she stays in the loop because she knows her daughter's password, and her daughter knows her mom can access her page whenever she wants - and can see who is there and what they are posting.

A few rules: no putting your exact whereabouts on your status update, and be aware of who is tagging you in a photo because if that photo contains unflattering behavior, it could come back to haunt you. Also, the mom has a Facebook page of her own, although she is not yet among her daughter's 100-plus friends.

"I have become accepting that there are more positives than negatives from social networking," the woman says, noting that she is pleased to see the connection of her daughter's network through various circles such as school and sports. "It is allowing a lot of dialogue among people who may not otherwise have a chance for a lot of dialogue." Those are all good rules and observations, Ms. Vila says.

"I like to catch parents before this whole process starts," she says. "That way you can set the ground rules early and [not] be trying to catch up. If your kids know that you have a presence in their online community, you are acting like a chaperone. If they won't friend you, you should at least have their password.

"It is not that kids are untrustworthy," Ms. Vila says. "It is that they often lack processing skills. Parents need to explain that images may be damaging. They may not be able to think past the next day, let alone what will happen when they are looking for a job six years later." Studies such as the Digital Youth Project and the report "Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies," issued recently by Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, show that social networking has earned a place in American culture from which there is no turning back, Ms. Vila says.

"A few years ago, parents were saying, 'I don't want any of that stuff coming into my house,' even about video games," she says. "Then they realized, 'I have no choice, it is all around me.' Now studies are saying technology is going to encourage skills for jobs we didn't know existed. At the very least, social networking is encouraging technology skills, and that is going to be essential to the digital economy." To read the full report from the Digital Youth Project, visit https://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report.

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Texting, blogs, Facebook, gaming and instant messages might seem, to some, to be just more reasons to stare at a computer screen. Thinking like that is so 2008, any middle schooler will tell you. Now a study that looked at the online habits of 800 teenagers backs them up.

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Schools are watching students' social media, raising questions about free speech

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In this YouTube video uploaded August 29, Georgia resident Kelly Gunderson said she captured a rare moment in which her 87-year-old mother, an Alzheimer's patient, seems to remember who she is. Gunderson told TODAY she hopes the clip, with some 8 million views to date, will give other family members who are caregivers hope and something to relate to.

Devon Still, Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle, shared video of the moment he gave his daughter, Leah, a fist bump en route to the pediatric cancer patient's tumor removal surgery in September. The viral clip helped boost sales of his jersey, and the NFL team's pro shop donated all proceeds-more than $1.3 million-to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

This YouTube video uploaded by Toby Lever of Victoria, Australia, shows the moment when a seven-week-old baby named Lachlan-diagnosed with moderate-to-severe hearing loss-hears his parents' voices for the first time, thanks to new hearing aids and therapy. It has logged 11.8 million views to date.

This photo of a little boy reading to a tabby cat went viral on Reddit in early February, raising awareness about the adorable "Book Buddies" program at The Animal Rescue League of Berks County, in which children read aloud to cats at the Pennsylvania shelter to practice their reading skills.

The Ice Bucket Challenge craze-which helped raise $115 million for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research earlier this year-produced all kinds of remarkable videos. But none were more poignant than the one from Anthony Carbajal, documenting how he cares for his mother, who has ALS, before revealing that he too had been diagnosed with the disease. For people like him, he said, the Challenge was an invaluable resource.

This video of Avery, son of University of Nebraska assistant men's basketball coach Chris Harriman-who had spent roughly a month undergoing intense chemotherapy for leukemia-made national headlines in September, and prompted supporters to start an #AveryStrong hashtag.

On Feb. 2, a Michigan mom started a Facebook page to solicit birthday wishes to cheer up her disabled son, Colin, who said he didn't want an 11th birthday party because he thought he didn't have friends. About a week and a half later, he had 60,000 of them on Facebook, and a few weeks after that, Good Morning America hosted a surprise birthday celebration for him in Times Square. Now the "Colin's Friends" page has more than 2.1 million fans.

When his dog, Gina, ran away on Halloween, the American Pie and Orange Is the New Black actor asked his Twitter followers to keep an eye out for her. Thousands of retweets later, Gina was found alive. Biggs tweeted, "Could NOT have done it without you guys. An amazing woman picked her up in the street, and you guys ended up forwarding the message 2 her."

After Tara Taylor uploaded a photo of her daughter, Rylee, to Facebook, a friend reached out about a strange glint in the toddler's eye, saying it could be a sign of vision problems. A Memphis retina specialist diagnosed the youngster with Coat's disease, which can cause blindness, and Rylee started treatment to help restore some of her peripheral vision.

Katheryn Deprill's March 2 Facebook plea was shared more than 33,000 times-and one of the people who saw it was her biological mother, Cathy Pochek, who contacted an attorney to arrange a reunion at his office. "She left me somewhere she knew I'd be found," Deprill (nicknamed the "Burger King baby") told CNN affiliate WFMZ. "She did not want to throw me away."

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In this YouTube video uploaded August 29, Georgia resident Kelly Gunderson said she captured a rare moment in which her 87-year-old mother, an Alzheimer's patient, seems to remember who she is. Gunderson told TODAY she hopes the clip, with some 8 million views to date, will give other family members who are caregivers hope and something to relate to.

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Student suspended after social media post; father says school went too far

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Students today have never lived in a world without social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are a few of the most popular social-media websites and apps. They can be a fun way to connect with friends and family, especially those who live far away. Sometimes, people use social media to find jobs. But social media also attracts cyberbullies and trolls × troll hackers × hacker INTI ST CLAIR-GETTY IMAGES a person who tries to make people angry by posting upsetting messages on the Internet (noun) When using social media, it's best to ignore trolls. who seek to anger or annoy people. And TOM WERNER-GETTY IMAGES a person who breaks into a computer system in order to steal information or cause harm (noun) Be sure to use a secure password for your online accounts to protect them from hackers. use social media to steal people's personal information. Here, six TIME for Kids readers answer our debate question: Is social media good for society?

YES!

COURTESY DEEPIKA GROVER
Akshat Chakrabarti, 8 Manalapan Township, New Jersey
Social media is a great way to connect with people who you may not see all the time. It's also great for making friends. Social media helps you build connections with kids who have the same interests. It is a quick way for people to get to know each other, even if they're living across the world from one another.

NO!

WARREN BOND PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY HINA NOORANI
Rania Noorani, 11 Duluth, Georgia
Although social media is somewhat fun, we've gotten to the point where people can't put down their phones. Social media is changing our world completely. It causes people not to be their true selves and to pretend to be happy, just for public approval.

YES!

COURTESY MARTINA ARNOLD
Matthew Wrigley, 10
Farmington, Maine

Social media is good for society because it lets you write to people if you need help. You can interact with other people and have fun. You can learn from people who live in different countries. If you have a question, you can ask someone. There is cyberbullying, but you can block people who post mean comments.

NO!

COURTESY ALEX AND GRACE ONG
Katie Ong, 10
Los Angeles, California

When children use social media, they post stuff that parents may not want others to see. This may affect their privacy. Also, when kids use social media, they may be anxious that their friends' lives are better than theirs. Some people only post the good parts of life. This can lead others to jealousy or depression.

YES!

COURTESY LAWANDA COSBY
Jada Mosley, 10 Carol Stream, Illinois
In a world that is sometimes boring, social media offers incredible benefits. It can be entertaining. It can spread positivity and kindness. Furthermore, social media can introduce peers and children to new content and positive ideas.

NO!

PHOTO HAVEN, COURTESY PAYAL AGGARWAL
Sia Satish, 10
West Windsor Township, New Jersey

Students can be enticed by their friends to follow trends on TikTok or Snapchat. They try to portray themselves as cool, to fit into a group. Sometimes, social media promotes bad practices or harmful activities. This can hurt people physically and mentally.
The next debate: Should cities be car-free? Email your opinion to tfkeditors@time.com by March 17, 2020. Your response might be featured in an upcoming issue.

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Students today have never lived in a world without social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are a few of the most popular social-media websites and apps. They can be a fun way to connect with friends and family, especially...

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Infographic on the positive effects of social on teens

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Infographic on the positive effects of social on teens

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Do you wonder If your teen is being effected by social media? Social media does incredible things for teens today, but knowing how it can impact your teens self esteem can prepare you to be more capable of helping your teen during these times. Often teens are shown unrealistic expectations that can influence their lives. Learn more about the impact of social media on your teen in the infographic provided below.

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Social Media's Impact On Self-Esteem & It's Effects On Teens Today - Infographic

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Do you wonder If your teen is being effected by social media? Social media does incredible things for teens today, but knowing how it can impact your teens self esteem can prepare you to be more capable of helping your teen during these times. Often teens are shown unrealistic expectations that can influence their lives.

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Common Sense Media improves the lives of kids and families by providing independent reviews, age ratings, & other information about all types of media.