I have been preparing for this meeting for a little while now. I was recently tasked to look into how young people are using social networks and how the youth service can support young people using them. I also looked how social networking sites can produce benefits and opportunities for the youth service.
For my presentation I went back to basics. I had to keep in mind this presentation was to the senior management team (SMT), most of them are not tech savy and don’t even use social networking. I started my presentation explaining a bit about what social networking sites are, quoting from the Digizen site as they give a nice broad definition. I then went into different types of social networking sites, for example Facebook – Collaboration and communication, LinkedIn – Building professional networkings and finally Habbo, a teen centred role playing game (MMORPG). I used those examples to explain which its hard to give an exact definition and there are social networks appropriate for all different needs, and ones specially tailored to young people.
Social networking and young people, I got a bit more specific about how young people use social networking. I read various reports by many different agencies and bodies, trying to include information which would highlight the safeguarding aspects too, this was the primary concern SMT. I spoke about Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), why it applies to most social networking sites (most start up in the US and its a federal law, therefore they have to) and what it is. I also took a brief moment to talk about privacy policies and terms & conditions. Young people tend to use social networking sites as an extension of their current activities or school life, rather than actively going out to meet new people; something which is seen as more of a by-product. I also focused on mobile phones and how SNS are becoming more accessible to young people, some carriers offer access to mainstream sites just for topping up £10 a month.
Having covered what I felt were the basics; enough to give an understanding of what social networks are, I moved swiftly on to the benefits and opportunities. I probably spent a lot of time here, this is what makes it worth while spending time to get engagement and participation. Covered aspects about how online can lead to offline and vice versa. Using applications to engage young people and getting them to participate in groups and discussions. I went into more detail about applications a bit later on too. I thought it was important to highlight the potential reach here, I used the example of write once, publish a thousand or a hundred times, by writing one message everyone who is your friend can see that update. That led me on to talking about cost (free) and efficiency. The only cost I identified was time, it would take time to get things into place and train youth workers up to get the best out of using SNS. Efficiency wise I highlighted things like, only need a PC and internet access to start working; don’t need to travel. I took a bit of time to go over some of the tools of social networking and the benefits they have, public pages, profiles, groups and applications. Applications I discussed about events, photos, videos, forums and surveys.
After giving what I felt was quite a detailed overview of some of the benefits, I moved onto a selection of sites which I felt were good possible starting points. I referred to my hand out, rather than me explain all the ideas for usage and potential risks. I thought it was better to breeze over them and let my audience have a more detailed read and ask questions if necessary. I covered Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the current youth oriented site run by our council.
Following the suggestion of sites I went for the big hot topic, Safeguarding. How do we ensure young people and staff are protected online. I gave 3 bullet points of what I felt was important for the youth service to meet and provide to young people, I took some inspiration from “Social Media Youth Participation in local democracy” A report published by LHiU supported by BECTA. I gave a clear point that, social networking sites become a whole lot safer when youth workers are involved; people who can deal with issues relevant to young people. I gave 2 ways in which the youth service could offered safety, though Reactive and Proactive. Giving examples for each, for example a youth worker with just a little knowledge of social networking, can identify the potential risk and support young people if needed. Proactive - Sessions could be planned about SNS and how to protect privacy and the dangers of SNS. There are plenty of sites which offer information. I used an example of the name badge game which I learn’t during my training session. It seemed to go down rather well with the SMT, a simple game but gets you thinking! Lastly I covered aspects of protecting staff online.
Finally I gave my recommendation:
I would recommend using only one SNS to begin with and then expanding to others if there is a need. I suggest starting with Facebook, it is a mainstream social networking site, used by over 500 million users world wide, which would suggest it has the biggest reach. It is more than likely most young people within West Berkshire will have an account on this site.Facebook is a high profile SNS seen regularly in news, meaning it is well known by young people and parents. Most concerns are centered around privacy. Facebook is highly reactive to media and is usually quick to fix issues and concerns of users. It recently overhauled the privacy settings to make it much easier for users to understand.
Facebook currently offers the most features with a standard account, and more with 3rd party applications. The site also offers more advanced privacy controls than others. It is easy to use and has limited advertising which are approved by Facebook before being displayed. Minimizing the risk of young people getting unwanted or inappropriate ads.
Concluding my presentation by answering any questions, there were a few which I felt I handled well and could give on the spot answers for. The SMT said they felt much more informed about social networking and felt they had a more clear idea of how to move it forward. As as result I have just given the same presentation today, only 1 day after I gave it to the SMT, to the youth service managers meeting, they all appeared to be in agreement that social networking was a must! I am very pleased with the outcome and just awaiting the green-light to start moving this forward.
