We’ve all seen a movie where a classic teen saga unfolds. A 16 year old girl is involved in stuff her parents don’t approve of, so she’s sneaking around about it. But she just can’t help writing every juicy detail down in her diary. One day mom is putting away laundry and finds the diary. She reads it, confronts the daughter and then the fireworks start….. The debate is: Where do you draw the line between a parent who needs to know what her child is doing and privacy of the child?
No matter what side of that debate you end up on, we’d all agree (and the students will one day too) that parents have the responsibility to know what their kids are doing and to be involved in guiding them through those experiences. I’m not REALLY advocating spying, but I am advocating staying on top of your kids. In today’s world, is that even possible? Information flies in every direction so fast, how could anyone stay on top of it? You might think you know what is going on with your student, but when they get on the computer or their phone, do you really know?
This isn’t an easy subject and my tip for today isn’t an end all answer. However, it’s one piece of the pie. In a previous post, I told you about 6 of my favorite Google Tools for youth ministry. One I’d like to expound on here is Google Alerts. Google Alerts are an easy tool from the Googleplex that allow you to set up a “trigger” on any search term you prefer. Once set up, Google will email you when someone trips that trigger by posting new info with that search term in it. For instance, I have an alert on my name – Nathan Shoultz. If you post an article or a tweet or anything else that is crawled by Google’s search engine, I’ll know about it.
Why does this matter? Remember Phoebe Prince? A lot of your student’s life is being lived out online. That includes peer pressure, bullying and more. One way you can stay on top of what your students are saying about each other, about you, about your church, about their school, etc is to set up Google alerts on those subjects. It’s one more method to stay in tune. They’re not perfect and they won’t help you with sites like Facebook that are password protected, but they are a step in the right direction.
So, no, I’m not advocating we go spy on our students. However, if you’re a parent, or you’re a youth leader, one way you can stay informed about your students is to use Google Alerts. You can sign up at http://www.google.com/alerts.
