By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Smartphones and social media have become a regular part of daily life for people of all ages.
The impact of this technology on students was the subject of a community meeting at Central Elementary on Wednesday night (Oct. 24). For the latest Fluco Engagement Night, school officials, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, and interested parents came together.
“There’s a crisis going on that we’re trying to catch up with,” said Kaitlyn Harlow-Burner, the division’s coordinator of mental health services.
A 2022 Pew Research study found that 95 percent of American teens have smartphone access, 90 percent have access to laptops or computers, and 80 percent have gaming consoles. Today, 97 percent of teens use the internet daily, with 46 percent reporting they are online “all the time.”
The data is clear: since smartphone use started to rise around 2010, America’s youth have become more anxious, more depressed, and more dissatisfied with their lives. Suicidal ideation and incidents of self-harm have also skyrocketed, especially among teen girls. At least half of all children say they’ve been subject to cyberbullying.
“We are not here to freak anybody out,” said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Amanda Galloway.
At the same time, parents need to understand the very real risks of online life for kids, including not just cyberbullying, but sexting, extortion, doxxing, grooming and sexual abuse, and child trafficking.
Galloway and Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeff Haislip said they’ve investigated sexting cases involving children as young as seven.
What happens online inevitably impacts the classroom. “You can’t turn off depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, borderline personality disorders when you come to school,” said Harlow-Burner. Particularly with their phones always in reach, “they can’t get away from it.”
This is one reason Governor Glenn Youngkin has directed all Virginia public schools to adopt policies severely limiting the use of smartphones in schools.
While schools have a role in monitoring online behavior, Harlow-Burner said adults need to model the behavior they want to see in their children and their communities.
Galloway said parents are often behind the curve regarding how young people use online spaces and new technologies. “Make your kids sit down and show you how it works,” she said. Take some time to investigate popular apps like Snapchat and TikTok and learn how kids can hide online activities through “vault” and “decoy” apps.
With seemingly safe platforms like Roblox, she urged parents to set accounts so their children “can’t message or can only message people you know are real” to prevent them from falling prey to online predators who have swarmed the site.
Director of Special Education Jennifer Valentine urged parents to reach out to the schools with concerns or problems. “How do we make it better for your kids?” she asked.
If it was too hard to ask directly, she noted that the new school app allows people to make anonymous comments.
Valentine and Harlow-Burner said parents should ensure their children know “who their safe people are,” including their School Resource Officers (SROs) and school officials. Haislip and Galloway also invited parents to contact their office with concerns or questions.
Harlow-Burner said there were no simple answers, but it was critical to keep the conversation going.
She challenged the audience to reach out to at least five other people in the community to discuss online risks and ways parents can help keep their children safe and healthy in this new environment.
The next Fluco Engagement Night, which will focus on substance abuse education and prevention, is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 5, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the School Administration Building, 14455 James Madison Highway.
Sharing school threats on social media is a crime
Just two months into the school year, Fluvanna County Public Schools has already faced multiple online threats of violence.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeff Haislip reminds the public that making threats against schools is a crime — and so is passing along threats made over social media.
This includes things like sharing screenshots of threats over Snapchat or talking about rumors of violence over group chats.
“Even if you don’t make the threat, sharing a threat made by someone else is still a crime,” he warns.
In one recent incident, 17 students shared a threat on social media before the information was reported to school authorities.
The frequency of school threats has increased to the point where the school community could become numb to potential dangers, but “we respond to every threat,” said Harlow-Burner. “We take that extremely seriously.”
