Digital Smarts - Inappropriate Teacher-Student Relationships Blamed on Social Media

Some critics and parents are attributing the rise in cases of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students to the increased use of social media and the lack of implementation of rules for student–teacher contact online after school hours. An article, Friending Your Teacher: How Should Students & Teachers Interact on Social Media?, appearing on the site of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, examines a variety of positions on the issue including the extreme view that teachers and students should be legally prohibited from communicating with each other on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites.