News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Prescott South Middle School is hosting an event Tuesday to educate local families on the online dangers teenagers face.
The Project Guardian presentation is set for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. as agents from Homeland Security will speak. Prescott South Principal Tera Brooks said this will be the second year the school has hosted the conversation around online safety. Brooks said one of the most important things parents need to be is educated.
“Sometimes we don’t really realize that what we think is something very, I guess innocent, or just because these kids are doing this, it could lead to other things that is giving them exposure to things we don’t want them to have,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the event covers warning signs parents can look out for to tell if their child may be consuming inappropriate content. Brooks said that students are getting exposed and having access to online things at a younger age as the years pass.
Brooks said that after last year’s presentation, parents reported how much more knowledgeable they felt regarding what to look out for.
“We had grandparents that are raising our students, who, this is kind of new to them,” Brooks said. “We also have parents that are very active in social media themselves that still came out with information.”
Brooks said after last year’s event, she wanted to open the opportunity to more parents.
“My principal friends at other schools wanted to jump on board as well and kind of get that information out to their student body as well,” Brooks said. “We just volunteered to host it, kind of lead it and set it all up.”
Brooks said that students typically start getting exposed to social media around middle school age, so this is the most important time to educate them.
