The latest social media trend among teens is the app After School, where teens can post anonymous messages to people at their school — parents and teachers aren’t allowed.
Millions of teens are using this app, designed as a safe and secret space for students to communicate, but it’s hardly the first social media platform to promise its users anonymity.
Brighten, for example, is an app designed for users to send positive, anonymous comments to others. “But of course, you can use it to send mean things too,” says Justin Patchin, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center.
But what teens use to communicate anonymously online changes all the time and varies by location and schools, says Patchin.
The After School app has recently become popular at Swain County High School in Bryson City, North Carolina, but it has stirred up some conflict and led to some cyberbullying, says Principal Mark Sale.
[Find out how cyberbullied teens can connect online, in person to get help.]
When he found out about the app, he immediately held an assembly to talk to students about how their words could have lifelong consequences. “Did that stop them from posting on this or any other social media? Absolutely not, and I knew that it wouldn’t, but at least I made them aware because that’s as much as we can do.”
While parents can’t control what high schoolers are saying when using these services, the following talking points might help start a conversation about appropriate use.
1. Discuss with teens how to use social media responsibly: Sale, the principal in North Carolina, says parents need to be a positive role model on social media — and in life — as adolescents mimic what they see.
Discussing responsible behavior helps teens make good decisions and do the right thing when they are online, says Patchin.
Parents may want to encourage teens to not post hurtful content and report it when they see it, which most of the mainstream apps have the ability to do, he says. Many also have other safety measures in place, but if they don’t Patchin says teens should stay away.
[How to talk to teens about being responsible on social media.]
2. Inform high schoolers that anonymous apps are not always anonymous: “The company knows who’s connected to their app,” says Patchin, who is also a professor of criminal justice at University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.
“If a user crosses the line, in terms of their behavior, and says something, posts something that’s of a criminal nature, they are going to get tracked down. I mean they are all connected to one’s cellphone,” Patchin says.
3. Ask teens about their online activities: “If you see that they are being overly energetic towards something on the phone, it’s a sign they’ve been drawn into something and we need to know what that is,” says Sale.
Another important point for parents to remember is that they pay the phone bill, he says, and have a right to look at the phone to check and see if there are any apps that create problems. But parents should be aware that there are what’s known as “ghost apps,” designed to hide information.
Patchin suggests parents talk with teens about what value they see in anonymity — they may have a good reason.
“It allows kids to interact with their friends without having the concern about it being archived on Facebook forever,” he says. “Even though most of the time teens recognize that it might not be completely anonymous or might not completely disappear, like a Snapchat conversation, at least it gives them some measure of privacy and not just from their parents, but just in general, as well. We all want privacy so we have to recognize that as well.”
Sale thinks these apps could have benefits, too.
“It’s absolutely possible to take these anonymous applications and to post positive things about people rather than negative,” he says. “And that’s the way to combat this. If we would post something positive on social media after every negative comment, it would shut down the negative.”
And like anything else with teens, he thinks the trend will die out. “But you know as well as I do, when one thing dies out, something else comes up.”
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3 Points to Discuss With Teens About Anonymous Messaging originally appeared on usnews.com