00;00;00;00 - 00;00;19;26 Speaker 2 Welcome to Navigating the Digital Playground, a podcast from the Stevens Point Area Public School District. I'm Sarah O'Donnell, director of communications. And in this series, we're exploring how students are using technology and how families and schools can support healthy digital habits. Today's episode focuses on cyber safety and digital footprints. 00;00;19;28 - 00;00;26;19 Speaker 2 We'll talk about what students need to understand about privacy, what adults sometimes miss, and how we can work together 00;00;26;19 - 00;00;41;11 Speaker 2 To help kids make thoughtful choices. Joining me are officer Marchel school resource officer at Ben Franklin Junior High, and Liz Peterson, library media specialist here at splash. Thanks for being here, both of you. Absolutely hate it. 00;00;41;15 - 00;00;42;22 Speaker 3 Thank you. 00;00;42;24 - 00;00;49;19 Speaker 2 Let's start with you, Officer Marchel. Can you introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about how long you've been with the district, maybe your PD background? Sure. 00;00;49;20 - 00;01;03;09 Speaker 1 Sure. So, yeah. Officer Chris Marshall with the Stevens Point police Department. I'm just shy of 11 years. I've been a police officer here in Stevens Point. I've been a school resource officer of at Ben Franklin for just over five years now. 00;01;03;11 - 00;01;05;22 Speaker 2 Wow. I can't believe it's been five years already. That went really fast. 00;01;05;23 - 00;01;06;18 Speaker 1 It has. 00;01;06;20 - 00;01;08;21 Speaker 2 And how about you? You tell us a little bit about your background. 00;01;08;24 - 00;01;19;21 Speaker 3 Sure. Yeah. My name is Liz Peterson, and I'm the current librarian. I this is my 20th year as a teacher, and I spent about ten years in the classroom. And then this is now my 10th year as a librarian. 00;01;19;28 - 00;01;25;15 Speaker 2 That's wonderful. Thank you so much for being here. So I think we can just jump right in to questions. 00;01;25;15 - 00;01;37;16 Speaker 2 I think that that term cyber safety changes so quickly for families. So, Officer Marshall, when we think about cyber cyber safety, what does it actually mean for students today? 00;01;37;19 - 00;02;06;10 Speaker 1 It means a variety of things. It means being aware, of your privacy settings when we're, whether we're talking emails, social media, it means, the little things like, let's say we're using a social media, site like a Snapchat that has GPS location. Using that smartly, turning it off when we're maybe going out of town on a vacation, things like that. 00;02;06;13 - 00;02;28;28 Speaker 1 It means, you know, for kids not sharing your passwords with people. Having a smart, secure password. Things like that. It also means being aware that everybody that is out there on the internet isn't necessarily friendly. Or a friend. Just being where you're surroundings. And using common sense. 00;02;29;01 - 00;02;38;02 Speaker 2 I like that. I like that a lot. Do you think students are generally aware of those risks, or do you think there's some teaching opportunities there? 00;02;38;04 - 00;03;03;12 Speaker 3 I think it's a combination of both. I have worked in now elementary settings and in high school settings, and for my experiences in the elementary setting, I know that our library media specialists and classroom teachers are going through a digital censorship curriculum with our elementary students. So I know that there is an awareness that's being brought to students from that school perspective. 00;03;03;19 - 00;03;30;11 Speaker 3 And then I know that also, myself as a parent, I've had those conversations with my kids as well. And so I think it's a combination. And I think as things are changing so rapidly, it's important for us to revisit these topics frequently. We can't just assume that once we've had that conversation or once we've had that lesson that we might not need to revisit again and refresh or shift our thinking as things change. 00;03;30;14 - 00;03;54;20 Speaker 2 Yeah. We interviewed some students for the podcast as well, and they had shared with us a, exercise that they had done in elementary school where they looked up their names and found that to be like they found all kinds of things and found that to be really interesting. Even at that grade. So we think about maybe that exercise and that idea of continually kind of doing some education for students. 00;03;54;22 - 00;04;04;07 Speaker 2 What do we think lies about that digital footprint? And why like why that matters and how we can help kids understand what that digital footprint looks like? 00;04;04;09 - 00;04;27;26 Speaker 3 Yeah, I think for students. And I know, even for myself, as I think back about, you know, being born in the 80s, and how just rapidly things have changed. When I first started going on social media, on Facebook, I wasn't necessarily thinking to myself, like, wow, this is going to be out there in perpetuity, right? I was just having fun with my friends and exploring this new landscape that existed. 00;04;28;02 - 00;05;00;19 Speaker 3 So I think it's important to help our kids understand that, this is something that you're putting out there, and it's there forever. Even if you think you've deleted it. Even if you can't initially find it simply with a Google search. There's archival ways that people get into, different things. And so I always try to have a conversation with my own children to like, hey, is this something you think you're going to be proud of in ten years that you're putting out here, or are you going to be regretting that? 00;05;00;22 - 00;05;25;02 Speaker 3 Why would you want Grandpa and Grandma to see that post or that picture? Or are you thinking, maybe not. And I think sometimes it's important. And we did talk about this a lot with students in the elementary school, like pause and Think, because it's important to give, not immediately react and give yourself some time to think about, do I really want to post this and for this to be out there? 00;05;25;03 - 00;05;26;11 Speaker 2 Good advice for everyone. 00;05;26;18 - 00;06;04;10 Speaker 1 All right. Just to echo off of what Liz was saying about, you know, thinking, I talked to seventh graders in class every year. And that's one of the things I touch on. We teach them a little bit about how the internet works. We talk about servers and social media. You know, just to bring up Snapchat again, it became so popular because, maybe mine and Liz's generation grew up with, you know, Facebook or Myspace before that, where things were kind of a more permanent, that followed us through or as we age like. 00;06;04;12 - 00;06;40;12 Speaker 1 Whereas Snapchat became popular because the kids saw this as, oh, look, I just, I send this message, I send this image and it disappears. It's gone. Right? So I explain to them a little bit about it's not really gone. Anytime any kind of communication goes through a server where we're whether we're talking to emails, social media, it's permanently saved on that server, I would venture I'm not an expert in the field, but I would venture, you know, your big social media, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, they probably have anything that's gone through their servers permanently saved. 00;06;40;12 - 00;06;47;19 Speaker 1 I don't know how long the archive them, but I've heard they have some of the first snaps that were ever sent archived. Yeah. So it's never it's never really gone. 00;06;47;20 - 00;06;49;09 Speaker 2 Never really gone. 00;06;49;11 - 00;07;24;13 Speaker 3 And if I can add to that, I think another thing that we've all become more and more aware of and we need to help students know this too, is that even if you think it disappeared, whoever you sent that to could have taken a screenshot. Absolutely. And that's also what I think about when I, talk to my kids about different privacy settings that they have or privacy settings I have on my own, accounts, is that while I'm still trusting everybody who I said is my friend, they could be taking, you know, screenshots and relationships change, especially when you start with social media when you're young. 00;07;24;13 - 00;07;30;03 Speaker 3 And, that could make a difference. You don't know who's taking screenshots of what you're putting out there. 00;07;30;05 - 00;07;52;11 Speaker 1 And I'm not going to share any of them. But there's literally apps that kids can download and that take screenshots without you knowing it. Or it's like a background, you know, app. So yeah, a lot of different ways, whether it's taking a picture with a different phone or, you know, apps like that, it's it's not just because you think it's, going away in 30s. 00;07;52;11 - 00;08;14;29 Speaker 2 It's not it doesn't mean it is. Yeah. So we've talked about some of the negatives because certainly there are do we think there's any positives of just kids being online and having access to any friends in a different way? I guess I'm wondering advice for families on, you know, if kids are on these platforms, how do we help them engage positively? 00;08;15;07 - 00;08;38;09 Speaker 1 Sure, sure. I you know, if you look at, me personally, I'm a little older born, born in 1970. Just, age myself. But, you know, when social media first came out. I'm a combat veteran, served in the military straight out of high school and did about four years when I moved back to my hometown. Kind of fell out of contact with a lot of friends. 00;08;38;10 - 00;08;59;19 Speaker 1 You know, you didn't have phone numbers for them or you. They moved. You didn't get an address. So probably for ten, 15 years there, you didn't really get to communicate. So it was great being able to all of a sudden with social media coming out, be able to make contact and rekindle friendships. A lot of people have families that people disperse all over the United States. 00;08;59;19 - 00;09;21;10 Speaker 1 And it was it was a great way to, you know, be in communication. I'm sure it's that same way today. We we have aunts, uncles, grandparents that might live in a different state. And look how nice it is. Now we can, you know, share photos of, you know, our basketball game or our concert or whatever it may be that we're proud of, and we can share those photos or those those videos with family members. 00;09;21;10 - 00;09;45;26 Speaker 1 So I mean, social media definitely has its it's advantages. But it just you need to think twice about what you're taking a picture of. Again, like like Liz said, it's something I teach to the kids too. In class. Let's not take a picture with our phone. Even of anything, you wouldn't be willing to show your family members. 00;09;45;26 - 00;10;08;00 Speaker 1 Mom, dad, grandparents, myself. IT administrator at school. Because if you end up taking a picture that maybe you shouldn't have, all or any of those people may end up seeing it. So just kind of think twice about what we're taking pictures of, whether we intend to send it or just keep it on our our own phone. Just kind of give it give it a little thought. 00;10;08;03 - 00;10;16;10 Speaker 2 I like that. I like that. So I'm hearing maybe guidance is a little more helpful. Maybe. And leading that conversation. 00;10;16;13 - 00;10;50;10 Speaker 3 Yeah I would agree with that. I, I think, there are a lot of positives to social media. I echo what you're saying about family members far away. I have family members who live overseas, and this is one of the only ways that we're able to see what they're doing on a day to day basis. And I will also say that when we were going through some of those moments in Covid where we didn't have a lot of person to person contact, my my children, especially being able to be in contact with their friends through social media and even just their cell phone was really important for their social health. 00;10;50;12 - 00;11;17;11 Speaker 3 And so I think there's those positives that are there, and I am finding more and more, that I try to remain when I have conversations with my own children, with students here, I try to remain very, just curious. And, trying to remain like, curious and like thinking through the situation out loud without a sounding of judgment. 00;11;17;11 - 00;11;37;14 Speaker 3 Sure. I find that when is as soon as I seem like I'm bringing this judgment into the situation, then people tend to lock up. Yeah. And I really want to kind of play through that role, playing with them and thinking about it from all different angles and asking questions of like, okay, so now what is your next plan? 00;11;37;14 - 00;11;47;01 Speaker 3 What is your next step? How do you think we should handle this together? And what I remain curious and kind of neutral. It's a lot easier to talk through those. 00;11;47;04 - 00;12;08;19 Speaker 2 Sort of modeling the behavior that that we want them or the thinking patterns that we would like to instill. I like that, I like that, Chris. I know, PD has been an amazing partner for us throughout. Well, just overall, but definitely through this series that we were doing, in person with families and shared a lot of really great resources. 00;12;08;19 - 00;12;21;28 Speaker 2 Can you just kind of walk us through maybe what some of those resources might be for families that they may not be aware of it just, you know, what happens if someone does share a picture online and we want to get it taken down? Are there ways to do that? 00;12;22;00 - 00;12;49;02 Speaker 1 Sure. Your biggest resource is probably, your school resource officers, your assistant principals, a teacher that you trust, right? An adult or a trusted adult, whether that's an aunt, uncle, mom or dad, a trusted adult. Because, you know, I think kids are sometimes afraid to come forward with a problem. Or maybe they made, you know, what would they view as a mistake? 00;12;49;05 - 00;13;13;09 Speaker 1 And they're afraid to get in trouble. What they need to remember is that, you know, especially as a child, depending on the situation and the circumstances, like, they could be a victim if they were, you know, contacted by somebody they didn't even know and basically coerced into, you know, sending a picture or something like that, scammed into doing it, threatened into doing it like your victim, you need to come forward. 00;13;13;09 - 00;13;42;25 Speaker 1 You need to, talk to a trusted adult. We're we're going to, you know, we don't we we don't punish victims in law enforcement. We try to help them through it. There are resources, some some online resources that we'll share in this video later. We'll post them where, I think one of them, as far as, getting images taken down, is, take it down that Nick Mack dawg. 00;13;42;27 - 00;13;44;09 Speaker 1 That's a resource. 00;13;44;09 - 00;13;54;19 Speaker 1 Obviously as a school resource officer, I wouldn't say it's a common, problem we deal with, but we've, you know, dealt with it quite a bit over the last few years. 00;13;54;19 - 00;14;15;20 Speaker 1 There's several surveys out, you know, where they they've given anonymous surveys to kids, between the ages of, I think it's 10 or 11 and then up to 17 years old, you know, and the last one I saw, it was 1 in 5 or one inch seven had admitted to taking or sending images, that may contain nudity or something close to that. 00;14;15;20 - 00;14;17;29 Speaker 1 So that that's a pretty big number. 00;14;17;29 - 00;14;22;07 Speaker 1 Honestly, I think as an SRO, a lot of it goes unreported. 00;14;22;07 - 00;14;46;03 Speaker 1 But there's help, right? Contacting a trusted adult and as a SRO, probably one of our biggest missions is getting those images taken, taken down, making sure, you know, if it got shared to a group of people that were contacting all those kids, contacting all those parents and making sure that that images and saved so that a year down the line here, it doesn't pop back up and become an issue again. 00;14;46;05 - 00;15;04;07 Speaker 2 Yeah. If I'm thinking about conversations I had with my daughters when they were that age, it's not necessarily a fun conversation to have with them. If if you know someone was listening to this and thinking about how they might approach that conversation with a daughter or a son, 00;15;04;07 - 00;15;04;09 Speaker 2 you 00;15;04;09 - 00;15;06;28 Speaker 2 what advice would you have for them? 00;15;07;00 - 00;15;29;29 Speaker 1 The hardest part is not being judgmental, right? Not not making it, not portraying to your child that, you know, if something like this ever happens to you or you find yourself in a difficult situation like this, you need to trust mom or dad. You need to know that we're going to be there for you, that we're not going to judge you, that we're going to help you through what I think is the biggest thing to get to get across. 00;15;30;00 - 00;15;31;28 Speaker 2 Building that relationship early, around. 00;15;32;02 - 00;15;56;23 Speaker 1 Write that on. And then if something does happen, obviously we're going to be scared, angry, worried as parents, but making sure that we, you know, give a positive image and support, try to hide, you know, hide the anger part. Obviously we're going to be frustrated. Yeah. But you got to be that resource for them you know. 00;15;56;26 - 00;15;57;26 Speaker 3 Yeah I would agree. 00;15;57;26 - 00;16;09;06 Speaker 3 I had some very serious conversations with my own children that, you know, when you're talking about that, that adult that you trust, that is that care, that concern, that love is unconditional. 00;16;09;09 - 00;16;31;03 Speaker 3 And it's important for kids to understand that. And, you know, unconditional doesn't mean we aren't humans and we aren't going to all experience all the feelings that go with the situation, but that ultimately, you know, we have your back and you can come to us. And it may seem like something is world ending, but we will get through it. 00;16;31;03 - 00;16;32;07 Speaker 2 Absolutely. 00;16;32;09 - 00;16;55;13 Speaker 1 And it it's having those organic conversations before it happens. Right. It's talking about stuff that we see in the news that we see in the media. Learn, learn through other people's mistakes. Because if you think about the age group we're talking about here, junior high, you know, fifth or sixth grade on up all the way to, you know, through high school, like you are going to make mistakes in life. 00;16;55;16 - 00;17;28;15 Speaker 1 I mean, that is the age group age type where you're learning how to navigate life or you're learning how to navigate, you know, the ever changing world that is social media. If if, you know, I look back on how much it's changed. You're constantly having to learn new stuff. There's constantly, new social media platforms. You know, as a parent, I've said it to, you know, I, I'm frustrated of why are kids, you know, putting this situation where they're expected to make adult decisions. 00;17;28;17 - 00;17;44;23 Speaker 1 Why don't we just take down the platform as well? The reality is, because they're smarter at the technology than we are. And they would if you took down the four biggest, social media platforms today, the kids would be up and running on new stuff tomorrow. 00;17;44;23 - 00;17;45;07 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00;17;45;10 - 00;17;46;22 Speaker 1 Or by the end of the day, if you. 00;17;46;22 - 00;17;49;01 Speaker 2 Wake up real quick, very quick, 00;17;49;01 - 00;17;56;04 Speaker 2 if families see something concerning online, what is the best first step for them? 00;17;56;07 - 00;18;15;29 Speaker 1 Contact an SRO, contact, a trusted adult. Let somebody know, even even letting a friend know, right? Because that friend might care enough about you. And this has happened as a SRO or I have kids come to me and say, hey, my my friend, you know, has been talking to me about this. They're worried. They don't want to tell their parents. 00;18;15;29 - 00;18;36;15 Speaker 1 They're scared. I'll talk to a counselor at school, kind of have them handle it. Start with the counselor. That's how you know, typically how that will start. Get a trusted adult that they, can connect with and kind of go from there and see if they're willing to, talk to that counselor and, and see what happen. 00;18;36;17 - 00;19;00;15 Speaker 3 Yeah, I would definitely echo that. I've had students approach me with, different stories that will raise alarm bells for me, and I support them through that in a non judgmental way and just want to express my concern for them and, you know, explaining, hey, when you say you've met someone online, remember, you don't really know them. And then I tap into my trusted adults which are usually their counselors. 00;19;00;15 - 00;19;09;14 Speaker 3 And we are very, very fortunate, in this district that we have so many different people, part of our team that we can really help kids that way. 00;19;09;18 - 00;19;25;25 Speaker 1 And for those families that maybe are nervous about contacting somebody that don't want law enforcement involved, don't want the school involved, you know, the social media platforms, if it if it was a picture or something, 00;19;25;25 - 00;19;36;13 Speaker 1 soliciting images, whatever it may be, something concerning that's involving a social media platform, all of the platforms have where you can report a snap report, a post, 00;19;36;13 - 00;19;38;13 Speaker 1 if you don't want to, 00;19;38;13 - 00;19;42;10 Speaker 1 you know, contact law enforcement or go that route, at least do that. 00;19;42;13 - 00;19;45;18 Speaker 1 All all these social media sites are monitored. 00;19;45;18 - 00;20;01;02 Speaker 1 ICAC, internet crimes against children. They get, reported posts from the social media companies of, you know, questionable, questionable, photos that could, could contain, you know, child pornography. 00;20;01;02 - 00;20;08;04 Speaker 1 They do report and they'll contact local law enforcement agencies to follow up in the area that that was posted. 00;20;08;10 - 00;20;19;02 Speaker 1 But at all, a lot of them start, start with, somebody reporting a post. Obviously, they have software that detects this stuff. But if somebody reports a post, obviously that's going to get looked at. 00;20;19;04 - 00;20;24;22 Speaker 2 Yeah, that's really good information. And we'll share, we can share how to do that 00;20;24;22 - 00;20;28;14 Speaker 2 Liz, is there anything that you wanted to share that I didn't ask you about? 00;20;28;17 - 00;20;52;27 Speaker 3 You know, I know we're speaking about this from a digital platform, but I really do feel like this is interpersonal skills. This is starting with how do we treat other people, how do we problem solve? And that does start young, right? It starts right from the beginning. Parents are the first teachers working through problems. Then they come to school and we work through problems together on the playground, in the classroom. 00;20;52;29 - 00;21;13;09 Speaker 3 And then we make that shift to online. And so I always try to remember when I talk to kids or my own children and students, whoever it is that think about this like, is this something you should be doing in an online platform? Or how would you say this to this person if you were face to face? And would this be a better face to face conversation? 00;21;13;11 - 00;21;23;18 Speaker 3 So I think sometimes we forget that behind that screen there's still a person. Absolutely. This is really, again, an interpersonal situational skill. Yeah. 00;21;23;24 - 00;21;45;12 Speaker 1 And that's something we talk about in the police outreach classes. I teach for facts. Do you know what cyberbullying we talk about? I mean, we cover sexting, we cover all the internet works, all these, you know, internet security type things. But we talk about how people will almost have a second personality when they go online, like their online personality and and why that may be. 00;21;45;12 - 00;21;54;07 Speaker 1 Right. Because it's not face to face people tend to see or, you know, put things out there that they probably wouldn't in person. So we talk about that, 00;21;54;07 - 00;22;04;10 Speaker 1 we talk about how to deal with with bullying and cyber bullying. I mean, obviously I have this talk with kids all the time. It almost seems like a badge of honor. 00;22;04;14 - 00;22;28;00 Speaker 1 I think Ben Franklin has. I forget how many kids in it. 500 plus. It's like a badge of honor. Or if it's a social media site to be friends with or or followed by every one of those kids. And I explain to the kids, like, that's not how you should be approaching, social media if you don't know them, or at least have them in a class, you probably shouldn't be friends with them. 00;22;28;00 - 00;22;31;28 Speaker 1 Everybody isn't your friend or following you for the right reasons. 00;22;31;28 - 00;22;41;21 Speaker 1 People might just be following you to someday when you make a mistake to, you know, to take advantage of that. Grab that change. Yeah. Be it'll be a little more, 00;22;41;21 - 00;22;44;08 Speaker 1 selective in how many people you're friends with. 00;22;44;08 - 00;22;46;10 Speaker 1 as parents, obviously 00;22;46;10 - 00;22;53;04 Speaker 1 We have to have those hard discussions. We have to set hard, hard lines. As far as, checking up on them. 00;22;53;04 - 00;23;08;14 Speaker 1 We need to be aware as parents that kids sometimes like to have an alter ego, right? They might have their normal Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook page that they share with you, and then they may have a second one that is kind of their alter ego or that they share with their friends. 00;23;08;14 - 00;23;09;19 Speaker 1 So be aware of that. 00;23;09;22 - 00;23;19;09 Speaker 3 We do. We do a whole lesson unfenced us in the elementary school, fake Instagrams and and alternative profiles that then children have. 00;23;19;11 - 00;23;37;26 Speaker 1 And if you have questions on how to look into stuff like this, Google is your friend. I mean, yeah, 55 years old. Like when computers came out, it was a ball bouncing back and forth on a screen when I was in seventh grade. I mean, we're dos and, you know, the beginnings of computers. So, 00;23;37;26 - 00;23;40;22 Speaker 1 when I need to find stuff, I what I google how to do it. 00;23;40;22 - 00;23;44;17 Speaker 1 And it's usually a pretty self-explanatory checklist of how to do it. 00;23;44;17 - 00;23;46;03 Speaker 3 So 00;23;46;03 - 00;23;59;09 Speaker 2 Well, Officer Marchel, thank you. And Liz, thank you for helping us better understand cyber safety and digital footprints today. I know for me, this conversation has been really enlightening and I know what's going to help our families and educators and students as well. 00;23;59;16 - 00;24;00;10 Speaker 1 Thanks for having. 00;24;00;10 - 00;24;01;06 Speaker 3 Us. Thank you. 00;24;01;06 - 00;24;02;11 Speaker 2 Thanks.