Social Networking
What is online social networking?
Online social networking is when kids connect with other people online through certain websites. The most common for kids today include Facebook and Twitter. Each person creates his or her own account and page(in the case of scouts and guides we request that the group or unit makes the page or account and the youth operate throw that site to protect their personal information), and posts information, photos, video, and comments. When a person “friends” another person through a social networking site, that person can then access the other person’s page and make comments, upload photos and so on. Right now, most kids think social networking is the best way to connect with others (outside of actually being and talking with them).
Is social networking safe for kids?
It depends on how old the child is, what he or she posts online, and what he or she knows about online safety. Although most social networking sites require kids to be a certain age (often 13) (scout NSW policy is all Social networking has a +13 age limit) to sign up. You want to make sure your child understands how a social networking site works and which information is safe to post. Over JOTA-JOTI leaders will be supervising all content that is posted buy youth at JOTA-JOTI
Most social networking sites feature strong privacy settings that enable your child to decide which information to share with all other users of that site can see, and which is restricted only to friends. Understanding and using these settings is important not only for your child’s safety, but also to prevent any unwanted embarrassment or vulnerability.
Often, the default settings on social networking sites are set to “public.” Make sure to visit the privacy page of any social networking site with your child to change the settings. Many sites provide a high degree of flexibility in deciding which elements of a profile to share. The safest settings are to restrict access to all parts of a profile to approved friends only. Your child also has the option to block certain people from seeing her or his page, and often the ability to pre-approve all comments posted on the page.
Scouts and Guides have clear policy’s about activity’s around social media which you can download using the below links
Scout Social Media Guidelines
Guide Social Media Guidelines
IRC / Team speck / Minecraft / Joti TV
All of above services are monitored by adult members of the world scouting community and all communications are logged and details of users can be obtained by system admin staff. Very often a moderator will be in channel or game to police the communications and can remove any one who is a problem
see JOTI for more information about JOTI services
see JOTI Rules for the rules that all JOTI sites and users must work by
JOTA
All communications on Air are conducted under the supervision of a licenced amateur radio operator, licenced by their country’s government. While not all the amateur radio operators are members of Scouts or Guides, they all must comply with local child protection requirements, if anything is not right the local operator with your child will terminate the contact. Communications on air are also not secured so anything said can be picked up by others, again if your child begins to give out information they should not the local operator will terminate the signal. in NSW all Armature radio operators helping out have a NSW WWCC clearance or are working under a prohibited employment agreement and under direct supervision by a adult member of Scouts or Guides
see JOTA for more information about JOTA services
see JOTA Rules for the rules that all JOTI sites and users must work by
Onsite adult helpers
All adults on site who have direct access to you child will have WWCC or working under a prohibited employment agreement and under direct supervision by a adult member of Scouts or Guides
Questions or concerns
Please email contact@nswjotajoti.org