Learners urged to heed the four Ps

GITA LIPSCHITZ

SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

PHOTOGRAPH: YAEL GORDON

Pictured:  Emma Sadleir and Gita Lipschitz.

Sadleir, an attorney, specialises in social media law. Her talk covered the social media landscape in South Africa, as well as defamation, privacy and hate speech. More importantly, she explored the damage that sexting, cyber bullying and pornography can do to our learners’ personal reputation.

Any inappropriate photos or text that we post on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, can compromise potential scholarships, admission to university and future employment.

Parents were urged to tell their children not to post anything online that they would not want the “four Ps” – their parents, their principal, the police or a predator. She cited many cases of people who were expelled of fired as a result of a prank that seemed funny at the time, was actually “deleted” and then surfaced sometime later.

Your digital footprint is out there in cyber space, protect it and manage it well, was her warning and message.