Press

This year, Keystone School in San Antonio, TX, partnered with The Social Institute to launch #WinAtSocial in their community. They developed a new policy emphasizing a positive approach to technology rather than beginning from a negative or punitive perspective. We love seeing our partners expand on our mission of encouraging healthy technology use. Read more about Keystone’s development of #WinAtSocial on their school website.

 

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Becca Coopwood ’27 wants to make sure student voices are heard, and as a Student Ambassador for The Social Institute, she has a platform to do just that.  Recently, Becca was spotlighted at her school for being a leader and using her mic for good. 

 

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Earlier this month, The Social Institute polled more than 1,400 students in fifth through 12th grade from K–12 independent and public schools across the country to determine where they hear the most information about Ukraine. The top answer was social media. In 2018, Dictionary.com chose its Word of the Year as “misinformation.” With the ubiquitous use of social media, misinformation—when someone spreads information that is not accurate, but they don’t know it’s wrong—started spreading quickly. In an interview, Jane Solomon, Dictionary.com’s linguist-in-residence, said “Misinformation has been around for a long time, but over the last decade or so the rise of social media has really, really changed how information is shared.”

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One of the biggest parenting questions in the modern era is about when a child should be allowed on social media. The 1998 law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act blocks companies from tracking data from users younger than 13. As such, most social media platforms set 13 as their minimum age requirement. When asked about the age requirements, advice columnist and founder of The Social Institute Laura Tierney tells a parent of a 12-year-old that while it’s up to them to decide if their kid is allowed on Snapchat, they should make sure that the child won’t use the app at the expense of doing homework and chores.

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Instagram is making a move to address a longstanding concern of parents and lawmakers: verifying the age of its users, particularly children. Yet the new tools fall short of carding everyone on Instagram. They will be used only when users already registered as 17 or under attempt to say they are adults. However, according to The Social Institute’s 2021-2022 Student Survey, 47% of students said they created social-media accounts before age 13.

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