Teacher and Student Online Relationships

When adults take an interest in a child's success they tend to use all the tools available to them to make positive things happen. Social networking sites can be an effective tool to help teachers and other adults reach out to teens and be a positive role model in their lives. But social networking sites can also be a tool for those that are looking to develop inappropriate relationships with teens. Adults that are active in the lives of teens, (coaches, teachers, mentors, guardians, etc) need to be very cautious when using social networking sites to help in their involvement with the teen. The sites can be very beneficial in opening up communication with others but due caution on where the lines of communication should be drawn. Whether to use social networking sites to help communicate with teens should be determined through discussions with the organization the adult works for and the parents of the teen. Click here to read a CNN report on the subject that talks about the pro's and con's of teachers using social network sites to communicate with their students.