The Flipside of Technology

This week's presentation by Brainstorm Productions to our Year 7 students explored the very real consequences of decisions made online and how they can impact people. Told in an engaging style, the story centred on two characters and their race to avoid complete public humiliation.

The Flipside showed how quickly things posted online can spread to unintended audiences and for all our students reminded them to think before they post and to never post anything without permission or that has the intention to humiliate others.

While social media and technology can be wonderful ways to keep in touch with people, the interconnected nature of technology can just amplify issues when we make bad choices. The performance showed just how quickly things can spiral out of control and the importance of living our lives with our values, both online and offline.

The presentation highlighted that real people have real feelings. It is our responsibility to ensure that we are using the Internet safely and that makes it a positive experience for all.

Some key reminders for all students included:

• Ask permission before you publish someone else's content.
• Stop and think. Does this contribute in a positive way to the conversation?
• The danger of having our location services always being on in our apps.
• Checking privacy and location settings and checking again after updates as they are often set back to public.
• Nothing you do or say is online is anonymous. Everyone can be traced.
• You need to be the same person online as you are in real life.
• Harassing someone online is illegal.
• If you witness something untoward, take some positive action. Standing up for others is shown to make a real difference.
• Nothing you ever do is that bad that you cannot talk to a trusted adult for assistance, rather than trying to solve it yourself.