Schooldays.ie - Ireland's Online Resource for Parents & Teachers

Parenting & Education in Ireland

Schooldays.ie - Ireland's Online Resource for Parents & Teachers

Parenting & Education

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Many parents reading this will not have grown up with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.

Social media was not part of our lives when we were in our teens and if you are around my age (a weather beaten 41!!) then mobile phones were not around much either except maybe for the early versions which needed a suitcase to carry.




We were never taught how to use social media, it just happened and we didn’t realise how global a particular comment or photo could go in a matter of minutes. For many of us it was frightening, still is frightening and we treat it with nervous apprehension.

For our kids however, this is a different story altogether. They HAVE grown up with it; this is their form of communication and it is part of their lives.




Many of you will see your child sitting on the couch using not just one device like a mobile but using two or three devices all at the same time, having numerous separate conversations with different groups of people.

This may seem like a different world to us but its their world and like every generation, parents won’t understand what their kids are doing or why they are doing it.





We all know the dangers of social media, we hear it every day on the radio with frightening stories of grooming, predators, impersonation & cyber-bullying.

Children are using social media at a younger and younger age and it will only further decrease with time despite parents attempts to keep them sheltered from it. They are already using games with social media interaction which are classified as “child friendly”.




Having worked in this sector now for four years and written four educational books which are used in schools at primary and secondary level, I know that the only way of changing the negative behaviour which currently exists online is by instigating a generational behavioural shift.

There is only one way to do this – teach your children how to behave online in schools on a safe network.





If our kids are taught in a practical way from a young age about how to protect themselves and safeguard their identity; to be aware of how what they say could be taken up in a negative way; to report negative comments immediately; to treat others with respect then this generation of online users will behave in a completely different way than the generation before.

They will have known no other way and therein lies the difference.




That is why we built www.cybersmarties.com - it is a new way of thinking. It is the only predator free social network ever developed, has been tested with fantastic results and it works.

The University of Limerick are in the process of publishing an academic paper on the positive behavioural change in children as a result of using Cybersmarties.






If you are a parent who is afraid of what your child in primary school is going to do when they go on social media, don’t bury your head in the sand and hope the problems disappears.

Prepare your children for what lies ahead by getting your school to teach them proper social media etiquette through using
Cybersmarties.com.




Having someone come to your school to teach parents, teachers and kids about cybersafety has of course its merits in raising awareness and I fully endorse it but you won’t learn much in one day.

Like any subject, it is the act of repetition which reinforces learning and habit and you cannot learn about computers out of a book. You will only learn computers on a computer, you will only learn online behaviour on an online educational behavioural platform.






In simple terms, this is why you have a theory test and a practical test before you pass your driving test.

The same applies to online behaviour and safety….you must gain your experience in a safe educational practical environment.







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