Tuesday, January 27, 2015

UIS Spreads Social Media Safety To Local Students

Cyber-bulling and social media awareness. That's what professors from the University of Illinois Springfield were teaching those at a school in the capital city on Monday.

Kids at the Little Flower School on Stevenson learned tips on how to be smart and safe when using social media.

A new study shows teenagers spend up to 30 hours a week on the web. A U of I professor says that's why the university felt it should talk to kids about problems they could face.

"So many of the youngsters thing that they can say anything on the network and it really doesn't hurt. It's really not true, but it does and we've seen with the incidents of suicide as a result of cyber-bullying, that it has a tremendous impact on these youngsters," said Mary Sheila Tracy, UIS computer science instructor.

UIS says it plans on talking to students at other local schools about cyber-bullying.

This story aired on WICS Newschannel 20, January 26, 2015.

Watch the story online.