A cyber safety consultant is in Dunedin to talk with pupils, teachers and parents about how to use social media safely and responsibly.
Internet safety and risk assessment consultant John Parsons, of Nelson, visited St Hilda's Collegiate School yesterday and talked to year 7 and year 8 pupils in the morning and year 9 and year 10 pupils in the afternoon.
''The issue is not technology, it's how we use it,'' Mr Parsons said.
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In the afternoon session, he urged pupils to think about their ''digital footprint'' and how online posts could hamper their future employment opportunities.
''You have to nurture and protect your identity.''
The more information someone shared online, the more vulnerable they were.
He told the pupils about how a paedophile used a young girl's online post about wanting to learn guitar to manipulate her to send him pictures of herself.
He warned the pupils against sending a picture to anyone their parents did not know.
He asked pupils to consider the company they kept and only connect online with people whose values were consistent with their family's values.
He asked pupils with online ''friends'' they had not met in person to ''flex their digital muscles'' and defriend them immediately.
If pupils played games online, they should protect themselves both by never posting any photo of themselves online and by never using their real name.
''Privacy is dead. What is going to replace it is control,'' he said.
If somebody engaged with you online in an inappropriate manner, the best way to control the situation was to stop talking to them, he told pupils.
If someone was abusive online, the pupils should take a screenshot of the abuse and show it to their parents.
After school, he held a workshops for teachers and focused on teaching ''empathy and values'' to pupils when using information technology.
Learning about technology was like learning to drive a car.
A person needed to learn how to drive but a respect for other road users was as important.
Pupils' parents were invited to a workshop at the school last night and were told a child, to use social media responsibly, needed a strong sense of self worth, self control and the ability to be able to stand up for others when they needed help.
''I dare you to care,'' was a slogan Mr Parsons repeated yesterday.
Mr Parsons would speak at Maniototo Area School today, John McGlashan College and Columba College tomorrow and Twizel Area School on Thursday.
