Tips for Encouraging Safer, Smarter Technology Use in Your Schools
From TikTok to YouTube to ChatGPT, kids are inundated with technology that is changing the way they interact with and process the world around them.
Internet safety and digital responsibility expert Katie Greer spoke at the 2025 Making School Work Conference about how students, parents and schools can encourage safer and smarter technology use.
Teens and TikTok
Greer spoke in depth about how children – hers included – spend so much time on social media, specifically TikTok. As Greer explained, TikTok walks and talks like other apps, but it’s not built like other apps. The algorithm is almost uncannily accurate, designed to guess what users want to watch and then keep them hooked with targeted content. Videos pop up on the For You Page and populate based on what users like, share, comment on, watch or interact with in any way.
You throw them in an environment with over 3 billion people or anyone saying anything they want, breaking down anything that they want, that can be kind of recipe for disaster.
According to TikTok, many things affect the content you see, such as all of the following:
- the videos you like or share
- accounts you follow
- comments you post
- content you create
- video information
- details like captions, sounds and hashtags
- language preference
- country setting
- device type
Of TikTok’s 1.58 billion monthly users worldwide, the U.S. brings in 135 million unique users monthly.
- Around 25% of TikTok users are 10-19 years old.
- Approximately 30% of children ages 5-7 use the platform.
“You throw them in an environment with over 3 billion people or anyone saying anything they want, breaking down anything that they want, that can be kind of recipe for disaster,” Greer told the audience.
Science and Social Media
Social media isn’t designed for children and teens whose prefrontal cortexes aren’t fully developed. The prefrontal cortex controls skills like planning, prioritizing, and making good decisions, and doesn’t fully develop until around 25 years old.
We need to teach our kids how to take this on responsibly, how to be critical about it.
According to a study by the American Psychological Association, the more screen time a child has, the more likely they are to develop internalized problems like anxiety and depression, and externalized problems, such as aggression and hyperactivity.
“There’s so much information out there,” Greer said. “We need to teach our kids how to take this on responsibly, how to be critical about it. Family engagement is so huge in all of this stuff, we’ve got to bring our families in.”
The Role of Schools and Families
Both families and schools play a vital role in creating a safer, smarter tech environment.
New data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that more than 77% of public schools have a cell phone policy that prohibits students from having their cell phones during any classes.
More than half of school leaders also say that their students’ academic performance has been negatively impacted by cell phone usage.
Digital citizenship can be woven and should be woven into every single thing that we do.
With children ages 11 to 17 years old spending an average of 7.5 hours a day in front of devices, schools are devising ways to cut down on device usage in the classroom.
Greer urged teachers and schools to be prepared and proactive. Here are some of the methods she encouraged the audience to try:
- Teach digital citizenship, or how to safely navigate digital environments, and even work some of these tips into instruction.
- Teach empathy and how to decipher social media from reality.
- Include students in the lesson plans around these topics.
- Work with artificial intelligence, not against it. Find ways to incorporate it into your lessons and use it as a tool. Work with students to learn how to use it responsibly.
“I don’t care what you teach or what your role is in that building, digital citizenship can be woven and should be woven into every single thing that we do,” Greer said.
Technology-Free Times
Some schools have even started to implement technology-free times, places or lessons to get their students away from the screens.
The cafeteria is filled with noise on Tuesdays and Thursdays when people aren’t sitting there on their devices.
Greer talked about one Chicago school that implemented tech-free Tuesdays and Thursdays. Lessons and homework were completely screen-free. While some teachers panicked about redoing their lesson plans to fit the new rule, the school saw an almost immediate improvement in their students. Greer said their student and family engagement has gone through the roof thanks to the tech ban.
“They have kids who are in high school, kids who are playing during lunch time,” Greer said. “(They’re) communicating, the cafeteria is filled with noise on Tuesdays and Thursdays when people aren’t sitting there on their devices.”
Final Thoughts
Greer acknowledged that all of this might feel intimidating and that teachers already have too much on their plate.
“I know that y’all have a to-do list that is a million miles long,” Greer said.
But it is possible.
“There’s no one that works harder, that pivots more than educators on this planet.”
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