INNISFAIL – Local RCMP is inviting area parents to join a webinar hosted by award-winning social media experts that aims to provide parents with an educational experience for children’s safe online activity.
“Our kids are online and it is an important place for them to learn, grow and develop themselves for their future,” said Innisfail RCMP Const. Craig Nelson, the detachment’s community schools resource officer. “It can sometimes be a scary place though when parents think about some of the activities that can occur while their kids are navigating social media. It is our responsibility to learn together to help everyone make productive and safe decisions while on-line.”
The webinar will be presented by Jo Phillips and Joe Whitbread of Lacombe’s Jo(e) Social Media at 7 p.m. on Nov. 20.
Nelson said that while the webinar is “specifically” for parents, kids are also welcome to join for a healthy discussion on technology.
“Our kids are way more advanced than parents are with technology right now. We want to bring parents up to speed, and part of that is to educate parents on what their kids are doing,” said Nelson. “By being educated parents are more able to help protect their children too.”
He noted the kids are already “automatically” getting this discussion at Innisfail schools but he’s anxious to get the parent webinar out to educate them on online trends.
“That is an issue that we as the police deal with very often with the kids, and parents are a little nervous about it,” said Nelson. “Part of it is protection but they are careful to say, ‘hey look, we are not sure our job is primarily for protection’. It’s more education but there is a protection piece.
“From the policing side the protection piece is what we are really after but you can’t be educated without learning about how to protect as well, so its really a protection piece – learning the trends,” he added. “Online isn’t going away. Your kids need to be online because that is the future. It’s not even the future. It is the present. That is what’s happening.
“Parents need to spend some time to become familiar with what online is so they can have relevant conversations with their kids about their online activities.”
Any parent that wants to check out the online Zoom webinar can go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81203520381?pwd=aXA5YTUyRnBvT21KYTNOVks1WFNQdz09
The meeting ID is: 812 0352 0381, while the passcode is: 045425
If any parent has further questions about the webinar, he or she can contact Nelson at: 403-596-8032.
