Hello Marvista Families!
I hope you enjoyed spring break and were able to create some fun new memories with your families. As we get into the final season of school before summer begins, I wanted to share some quick safety tips about your kids’ use of the ubiquitous program Zoom.
Now as you know, Zoom is used by all teachers to connect with your students. The way it is used is that all students need to do is click on the link to join a Zoom call, they don’t need to have any software downloaded on their computers or have a Zoom account of their own.
However, what we are finding out is that some students are downloading the program and creating their own accounts, which allows them to open their own rooms and invite others without supervision, even on district Chromebooks. Here are some of the concerns around this:
- It is breaking Zoom’s terms of service, which says nobody under the age of 16 can create an account
- Because it is unsupervised, it can open the door to bullying situations or inappropriate discussions and sharing of images/videos with others
- If settings aren’t adjusted, anyone can “Zoom bomb” or drop into their meetings, including online predators
We all know it’s so important to help our kids stay connected with other people, and it doesn’t happen these days as naturally as it used to. That said, if Zoom is a way that you would like to continue to allow your kids to use to connect with others when unsupervised, here is a great list of settings and strategies to help keep them safe on Zoom: https://www.net-aware.org.uk/networks/zoom/
I hope these are helpful for you as we continue to move towards a place when we can all come together again in person!
Warm Regards,
Andrew Ritsema
School Counselor
206-823-5441 (call or text)
Andrew.ritsema@highlineschools.org
Click for counselor website