Hayward Elementary School hosted the BraveBe Digital Citizenship Program with a parent night on Tuesday.

Principal Scot Davis said the BraveBe group talked to every classroom during the day and community adults were invited to a program in the evening to let them know what kids are saying about content they are exposed to online.

Counselor Sara Halvorsen said it is sometimes alarming to hear what kids have experienced online and who they have communicated with.

Halvorsen: “We’ve had conversations in the last few weeks with parents of ‘hey we want to let you know this is something  your child shared with us today and something we experienced. I find that parents genuinely didn’t have a clue their kids had access to a lot of the things they have access to.”

Halvorsen said while kids use devices for schoolwork, their exposure to the most damaging online content is typically at home.

Halvorsen: “At school it’s all protected and they don’t have that kind of access to search things that are inappropriate or for someone to communicate with them in any way, but at home a lot of children are getting completely unsupervised internet time. Or, parents think they are supervising it, but they just realize the safeguards that aren’t in place.”

Davis said it’s not always that kids are searching for things that are inappropriate, but then ads pop up to entice them.

Halvorsen: “A big belief of mine is that when we know better, we do better and that parents want to keep their kids safe.”

She said research shows that the use of social media at a young age has a negative impact on mental health.

Davis said cultural changes pose new challenges to keep kids safe.

Davis: “I’m sure there are stats out there you can look up, but I just had the experience of being a principal at Hayward for 16 years and there has been a huge increase in the use of smart phones in the last five years. I tell parents you are really giving your kids access to the world. If you’re comfortable with that, I guess you go for that, or you really lock it down and you have some serious restrictions on there.”

The program included recognizing and responding to cyberbullying, promoting safe online behavior and setting barriers to online solicitations.