Kik was used by the 13 yo that was killed by the va tech kids.

Kik is also anonymous and used by people who want to lure children, I learned this from an organization that helps kids.

I wouldn't allow my kid to use Kik or snapchat, no matter his age.

I am a teacher. At my school, we specify that students must use their google accounts to collaborate.

But if a teacher assigns a group project and some of the class decides to handle communications via anonymous social networking sites that have, in other cases resulted in group bullying and suicide and murder, isn't that something the teacher and/or the school should be aware of so they can develop a policy?

Like, if a teacher were requiring kids to collect igneous rocks during their free time, and it turned out a bunch of kids were collecting them from active railroad tracks, you'd want to tell the teacher so that she could reassess the danger of the assignment she was giving or give instructions about what sources kids could use.

Maybe in this case it wasn't clear to the teacher that the kids would be using social networking to do the assignment? In that case I could understand the position that the teacher shouldn't be involved at all. Except that in this day it seems like whenever you ask tweens and teens to get together outside of class, it will probably involve social networking sites or texting.

Do most people really feel that schools shouldn't have policies on kids' use of these sites to do schoolwork? I can understand just handling a one-off situation as a parent to get through the assignment, but do you think it's wrong, in the longer term, to ask teachers and schools to think about making policies on these sites?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have signed myself up for a kik account, and just let her use it for the project. Then delete it.

Yup. Your principles ruined things for your daughter, and the truth is you can't control other families. Get used to compromising.

This is a bad response because it doesn't solve the real problem, which is having the school effectively "sponsor" kik use. The teacher needs to ban its use for school projects because of the bullying, suicides, and murder it has led to.

Letting your kid use YOUR Kim account solves HER kik problem, but does not solve THE kik problem.

No, the problem isn't the school effectively "sponsoring" kik use. The teacher gave an assignment for kids to work on their own on a project (apparently -- assuming OP's daughter wasn't lying.) The kids needed to find a way to all work as a group, together, and apparently chose using kik as their medium. The problem is OP doesn't like kik because it is anonymous. OP doesn't want his or her daughter using this particular platform.

So there are two solutions -- let your daughter use kik, just under your name, and immediately delete the account when the project is over (that way your daughter isn't using kik herself) and then also, suggesting a different way for kids to do school projects together -- there are plenty of platforms out there. My kids use edmodo.

+1 I'm amazed by how many people want the teacher involved. There is no way the teacher required that form of communication as part of the project, and there is no way for the teacher to monitor how children communicate. Instead of talking to the school, perhaps contact the other students' parents if you are concerned for their safety. This is a home issue, not a school issue.

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. When my son was in middle school about 2 years ago, he asked me the same thing. He needed the Kik app to do a school project. Not knowing much about it, I let him have it for that purpose. Then a few weeks later I discovered he was trading nude photos on the app. No photos of his face...just genitals. Very disturbing to say the least. It certainly gave me an opportunity to discuss the dangers of social media.

OP you were right not to let her have the app. It is dangerous for children. Stick to Instagram. You can do group texts on that app.

Just caught DS doing this too. We've upped the restrictions on his phone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have signed myself up for a kik account, and just let her use it for the project. Then delete it.

Yup. Your principles ruined things for your daughter, and the truth is you can't control other families. Get used to compromising.

This is a bad response because it doesn't solve the real problem, which is having the school effectively "sponsor" kik use. The teacher needs to ban its use for school projects because of the bullying, suicides, and murder it has led to.

Letting your kid use YOUR Kim account solves HER kik problem, but does not solve THE kik problem.

No, the problem isn't the school effectively "sponsoring" kik use. The teacher gave an assignment for kids to work on their own on a project (apparently -- assuming OP's daughter wasn't lying.) The kids needed to find a way to all work as a group, together, and apparently chose using kik as their medium. The problem is OP doesn't like kik because it is anonymous. OP doesn't want his or her daughter using this particular platform.

So there are two solutions -- let your daughter use kik, just under your name, and immediately delete the account when the project is over (that way your daughter isn't using kik herself) and then also, suggesting a different way for kids to do school projects together -- there are plenty of platforms out there. My kids use edmodo.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 kids in a group is huge. I teach MS and would never assign such a large group. 4 is more typical. Occasionally, when I am able to directly monitor work in the classroom, I have assigned groups of 5-6. But in 16 years of teaching, I've never heard of putting 13-14 year olds in such a big group. That's a lot of "workers" for the group leader to manage. I'd speak with the teacher about that as well. She needs a better system of selecting collaborative groups than simply dividing her class into thirds.

Translation: OP's kid is a lying liar who lies.

In hindsight, I think she may have been using this to explain a potentially low grade (which did not happen; she got a 100 on the assignment).

How did she get a 100 on a group assignment when she was unable to work with her group? Did the group members just put her name on the finished product?

She did her work; I don't know how it happened. I just saw the grade. The assignment related to preparing the morning news show at school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 kids in a group is huge. I teach MS and would never assign such a large group. 4 is more typical. Occasionally, when I am able to directly monitor work in the classroom, I have assigned groups of 5-6. But in 16 years of teaching, I've never heard of putting 13-14 year olds in such a big group. That's a lot of "workers" for the group leader to manage. I'd speak with the teacher about that as well. She needs a better system of selecting collaborative groups than simply dividing her class into thirds.

Translation: OP's kid is a lying liar who lies.

In hindsight, I think she may have been using this to explain a potentially low grade (which did not happen; she got a 100 on the assignment).

How did she get a 100 on a group assignment when she was unable to work with her group? Did the group members just put her name on the finished product?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 kids in a group is huge. I teach MS and would never assign such a large group. 4 is more typical. Occasionally, when I am able to directly monitor work in the classroom, I have assigned groups of 5-6. But in 16 years of teaching, I've never heard of putting 13-14 year olds in such a big group. That's a lot of "workers" for the group leader to manage. I'd speak with the teacher about that as well. She needs a better system of selecting collaborative groups than simply dividing her class into thirds.

Translation: OP's kid is a lying liar who lies.

In hindsight, I think she may have been using this to explain a potentially low grade (which did not happen; she got a 100 on the assignment).

Anonymous wrote:I also suspect OP's daughter wants Kik for social rather than school reasons. You could test it out by telling your DD you're going to talk to her teacher about the assigned "project". If she's fibbing about it she may out herself to avoid having you going to the teacher.

DD never asked for it...only explained it after the fact when she was not able to communicate with her "team". Note that, we later found out (yesterday) through FCPS SIS that her grade was fine on the assignment.

This is interesting. When my son was in middle school about 2 years ago, he asked me the same thing. He needed the Kik app to do a school project. Not knowing much about it, I let him have it for that purpose. Then a few weeks later I discovered he was trading nude photos on the app. No photos of his face...just genitals. Very disturbing to say the least. It certainly gave me an opportunity to discuss the dangers of social media.

OP you were right not to let her have the app. It is dangerous for children. Stick to Instagram. You can do group texts on that app.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have signed myself up for a kik account, and just let her use it for the project. Then delete it.

Yup. Your principles ruined things for your daughter, and the truth is you can't control other families. Get used to compromising.

This is a bad response because it doesn't solve the real problem, which is having the school effectively "sponsor" kik use. The teacher needs to ban its use for school projects because of the bullying, suicides, and murder it has led to.

Letting your kid use YOUR Kim account solves HER kik problem, but does not solve THE kik problem.

Who needs to solve the REAL problem? Sometimes we just need to raise our kids and not stand on ceremony.

But that just leaves the real problem (of kids in her class using kik) out there for your child to potentially be hurt by down the line.

I don't understand why you're advocating for putting only half of an ass into this problem when it could actually be solved by a whole ass. Nip kik in the bud now and it isn't a problem down the line for your kid or maybe even anyone else in the school. Look at the output of energy vs. reward on that one! But let your kid use your account now and you send your kid and all of the other kids (and down the line, the teacher too, if she finds out your kid used it with your approval) the message that it's okay to use sites like that.

I mean, how hard is it to shoot an email to the teacher, REALLY? Honestly this is something that just half of my ass could do, I wouldn't even need to call in the big guns for an email. Maybe email is harder for some people? (My ass is really good at typing! )

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have signed myself up for a kik account, and just let her use it for the project. Then delete it.

Yup. Your principles ruined things for your daughter, and the truth is you can't control other families. Get used to compromising.

This is a bad response because it doesn't solve the real problem, which is having the school effectively "sponsor" kik use. The teacher needs to ban its use for school projects because of the bullying, suicides, and murder it has led to.

Letting your kid use YOUR Kim account solves HER kik problem, but does not solve THE kik problem.

Who needs to solve the REAL problem? Sometimes we just need to raise our kids and not stand on ceremony.

I would have emailed the teacher the minute after the word kik came out of my kid's mouth. That ain't happening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have signed myself up for a kik account, and just let her use it for the project. Then delete it.

Yup. Your principles ruined things for your daughter, and the truth is you can't control other families. Get used to compromising.

This is a bad response because it doesn't solve the real problem, which is having the school effectively "sponsor" kik use. The teacher needs to ban its use for school projects because of the bullying, suicides, and murder it has led to.

Letting your kid use YOUR Kim account solves HER kik problem, but does not solve THE kik problem.