As an attorney who works with public entities, I get calls all the time from public entity clients asking for input on how to respond to cyberbullying or sexting by students.  Oftentimes, where an incident involves misconduct with technology, we collectively wonder aloud in these conversations why the involved students’ parents did not set ground rules or establish good technology practices with their children.

Though the failure on the parent’s part does not absolve schools from responding in appropriate circumstances, this is a very valid question. Sometimes parents are involved with their child’s use of technology but, more often than not when abuse raises its ugly head, they have no clue about the child’s use – I mean none at all.   Often their child has a nicer smartphone than they do.  More often than not they don’t even recognize that their child’s phone is better because they have never educated themselves about what their own phone can (or cannot) do.  As for that state of the art smartphone they recently acquired for their child at their request, they just didn’t know how “smart” the smartphone was.  Or they didn’t know their child was on that social media site, or that they had created other accounts under different names to supplement the one where most all their friends are family and their profile picture is of them holding a puppy in a sundress.  They just didn’t know.

Not only is this nigh of parental malpractice in the new age of social media, this represents a failed opportunity.  It falls to all of us, including school staff, to educate ourselves as to technology and how children can abuse that technology.  But it starts at home.  It takes time to model positive behavior and to meaningfully supervise a child’s use of technology.  But it’s okay for parents to lay down rules regarding use of technology and social media.  It’s okay for parents to have a better smartphone (or at least as good of phone).  It’s okay for parents to take the time to educate themselves on technology and its okay to do this before they hand it over to their child to use as they deem fit (or unfit as the case may be).   So go ahead parents – set guidelines and rules.  Make your children educate you about technology if they know more.  If they don’t, discover it together and develop rules together.  But in the end, please take steps to enforce the rules.  By doing so, you decrease the chance that someone like me will someday be discussing your child over the phone with school staff or even the cops.  In that case, I can pretty much guarantee we won’t be speaking about the picture with the puppy.