Media Students Explore Internet Safety

Pathway Three students Chelsea, Cameron and Jacob listened to the Big Brother theme song to spark a discussion – how often are we careful about who sees our posts? Do we recognise when we’re being watched? We discussed the importance of understanding the visibility of our posts, whether it’s a Snap, Instagram story, tweet (X) or Facebook post. Each time you post, it tells you who can see it or reply to it.

Students then had a practical activity with a tweet reply sheet to help them understand better. They first read public messages before drafting their personal response. Afterwards they were assigned a job role (police officer, fire warden or teacher), and created a response those professionals might reply with.

Chelsea‘s assigned job role was a teacher, she was given this tweet to work with:

@xX1_jessi_Xx “@Soph_King12 you are actually such a loser! It is no wonder you have no friends when you go around looking like that. Where did you get your clothes from? The bin outside Barnardos? Won’t even get started on your disgusting hair and face loooool”

Chelsea’s response was as follows: ‘It is so rude of you to think you are entitled to leave such a nasty message. Bullying can impact someone horribly. Next time, think before you speak.’

The professional response to the tweet she was working with was: ‘It has come to our attention that a unacceptable post has been uploaded. As a college, bullying is not tolerated. Happiness of our students is a priority and so further disciplinary will be made.’

Jacob‘s assigned job role was a Police Officer, he was given this tweet to work with:

@BadManBilly: “Yoooo me and my boys got everything in place to rob Morrison’s tonight, they won’t know what’s hit them ygm”

Jacob’s response was as follows: ”Are you crazy, if you want to get caught by the pigs and thrown in the big one, you sure are asking for it”

The professional response to the tweet Jacob was working with said: ‘This is PC. Atkinson, your tweet has been seen by the force and we will be at Morrisons this night coming fully armed.’

Cameron was assigned the role of a Fire Officer, he was given this tweet to work with:

@JackyBoiii234: “Haaaa, can’t believe I got away with setting fire to the bins in the Oaks carpark last night. Idiots will never guess its me, especially after I broke the CCTV camera”

Cameron’s response was: ‘What did you do and say that for it’s not nice to say and do things like that. How dare you’

The professional response was as follows: ‘You have done something very very dangerous we are coming over to put the fire out today’

Well done all for producing excellent work. Remember to stay safe online and be mindful of your digital footprint. The internet never forgets 🌐