Digital Communication Safety and Considerations

Social media use is popular with youth and adults, and young people may engage in sexual behavior online. As technologies evolve, parents and caregivers will need to stay up to date with how it’s used and the precautions to take to ensure that youth use it safely and respectfully for others. This resource informs parents/caregivers and offers helpful advice for conversations with youth.

It covers several topics, including:

• Safety issues to address
• Sexual and romantic uses, including sexting
• Screen time management
• Privacy settings

Our resources for parents/caregivers are free to download.

All of our resources serve as handouts with information, tips, and resources. Note that our resources for parents/caregivers are not meant for direct youth consumption. However, these do contain resources for parents/caregivers to facilitate conversations with youth and their providers.

This resource was included in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Toolkit for Adolescent Providers, a resource designed for healthcare care providers but is applicable to many other providers, including school-based and youth program providers. You can learn more about Toolkit here.

If this resource was helpful to you, please consider making a donation to support our work. Your contribution ensures that AHWG can continue to create resources to help parents and caregivers, young people, and the providers that work with them.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.