Internet Safety Presentations Empower Students and Their Caregivers

“If someone published a book full of all the things you’ve done (searched, typed, created, sent, posted) with tech, would you be proud?”

This is the question Katie Greer, a keynote speaker who empowers kids, parents, and staff to use technology in a healthy and safe way, asked to open her internet safety presentation with high school students.

“I’m not here to lecture at you that technology is bad and evil and is ruining your generation,” she told students. “I’ve had a lot of cool experiences because of technology. But this is something we all have to think about—all day, every day.”

Throughout her talk, Greer continued to talk about technology as a double-edged sword.

“Some of the things that make technology so amazing and beneficial can also be really bad,” she said.

Greer spoke about technology for social good and how it has had so many positive effects on society—from fundraising to the example of a struggling barber who turned to TikTok to share his skills and ended up traveling the world with celebrities.

At the same time, she cautioned students to be mindful because things can always be leaked that you didn’t want out there.

She proved her point by doing a search for Fox Lane on social media. By looking at hashtags and geolocation tags, Greer was able to click over to students’ public accounts and look at their vacation photos and videos of them doing TikTok dances.

“Isn’t it weird and creepy that a random stranger can look at anything you post without your knowledge?” she asked.

She spoke about digital footprints and how you can delete something and think it’s gone, but someone could have already taken a screenshot. She gave examples of ways this has affected people’s lives—from student athletes losing funding because of song lyrics in a reel they posted to students who had their admissions to Harvard rescinded after their group chat was leaked.

“You have to be careful. You have to be thoughtful,” she stressed.

Greer also spoke to students about privacy settings, blocking and reporting, creating content filters and perception vs. reality.

“We live in a world where anything can be filtered or manipulated,” she said. “We have to be good consumers of information. We have to be critical of information.”

Before concluding, she reminded students, “We have to be better tomorrow than we were today.”

After meeting with middle and high school students during the day, Greer held a presentation for parents and caregivers that included a question-and-answer session.