YOU are the KEY

Shaping Teachers and Parents in Being Responsible Social Media Role Models for Teens

YCAB and Facebook 

Jakarta 2019, – It’s important for all of us to stay safe and act responsibly when we’re online, and that holds doubly true for teens. To help teachers and parents guide teens how to be more mindful when they use the internet, YCAB and Facebook had facilitated training for them using the Think Before You Share’s teacher-parent modules in seven provinces across Indonesia since Q4 2018. The modules help teachers and parents to improve digital literacy and understand issues such as online safety and security.

Facebooks Head of Public Policy in Indonesia said: “Facebook is committed to empowering people to continue to build a safe and authentic community, and it is our goal to create a supportive ecosystem for high school students at school and at home. These teacher-parent modules, which we created together with YCAB, pave the path for teachers to strengthen students’ critical thinking and empathy skills, also value-based parenting models to assist teenagers in using social media”. 

There are 20.819.617 teens in Indonesia online, which is why digital literacy is necessary. We’ve seen the results of what can happen when people are lacking in digital literacy – they’re susceptible to believing misinformation is true; they risk their personal data by using insecure apps; they become addicted to social media and its feedback loop of likes; they bully and/or are bullied; and they don’t take steps to protect their online reputation which can have real-world consequences, to name a few things.

However, many teachers and parents today lack the resources that would allow them to guide teens on how to be more mindful when they use the internet. 

YCAB’s Chief Operation Officer said: “Providing resources to teachers and parents on this front is a positive move, and will help broaden community awareness of the inherent dangers, which is especially important given that teens often have far more knowledge of the workings of online platforms than older generations who were not raised with the internet. Together with Facebook, we are proud of the achievement and training given using our latest digital literacy modules. Over 2,500 teachers, 1,000 parents in 150 schools across 7 provinces have benefitted through this program. We have trained over 21,000 school participants and the impact on online safety will be significant.

The teacher-parent modules are part of YCAB and Facebook’s nationwide Think Before You Share program. The program had been running for three years in Indonesia and the teacher-parent modules were first introduced in 2018 as part of the Think Before You Share’s expansion. The teacher-parent modules aimed at sustaining the impact of the Think Before You Share program in every school, where teachers understand the importance of digital literacy and are able to guide their students along with their teachings at school, and parents can serve as a support system at home. 

2018/2019 Think Before You Share program has visited cities and regencies in seven provinces including North Sumatra, Banten, DKI Jakarta, West Java, East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, and South Sulawesi. These provinces were selected based on YCAB Foundation’s priority provinces considering human development index and students’ performance at school.

In addition to adding modules for teachers and parents, the 2018/2019 Think Before You Share program has also visited different types of high schools, including public and private schools, vocational schools and madrasas, with the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture and Ministry of Religious Affairs.