Instant Messaging - Why is it a positive thing?

• Person-to-person text messaging
• Instant collabortaion
• Instant messenging through cell phones

• File transfer/sharing
• Online collaboration
• Audio chat
• Video conferenceing
• Chat room messaging
• E-mail facilities
• SMS
• Gaming

Popular Instant Messengers:

Key Point: Instant messenging does not lead to bullying!  When cyberbullying happens, the focus needs to be on correcting the behaviour, not on removing the tool as a bully will find other ways to engage in bully behaviour!

Safety Tips

Adjust settings in the applications Options or Preferences menu to:

• Save conversation history - keep a record of what children are talking about
• Privacy settings - talk to children to ensure that they only all people they know to talk to them

Discuss with children some common safety tips:

• Make sure that online profiles do not contain any personally identifiable information.
• Avoid posting your cell phone number, home phone number, or address online.
• Learn how to engage blocking on instant messengers
• Never respond to text messages or chat requests from someone you don't know.

We teach children never to talk to strangers when in physical spaces but we do not teach them to do the same in virtual spaces.  Its time we do!