If you’re new to teaching, or just new to Facebook, one thing you should definitely do before you step foot in the classroom is check your Facebook privacy settings. Students love to have the inside scoop on their teachers. You can be sure they’ll be checking out your online profiles, as soon as they’ve figured out your first name.

To keep your recent holiday photos private and make sure that the world doesn’t know you listen to Cheryl Cole as you work out, here is some advice for teachers on Facebook:

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The rise of social media (BBC resource)

As social networks become more sophisticated, and can better simulate real-life, are we mistaking the convenience of social media for something more profound? As people announce they are “taking a break” from obsessively documenting their lives, let’s explore why to some, social media feels fake.

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KADIZA Sultana, one of the three London schoolgirls who fled to Syria last year, was said to have been disillusioned with life in Isis territory when she was reportedly killed by a Russian airstrike. Kadiza, who was just 16 when she and her friends Shamima Begum and Amira Abase left their Bethnal Green homes, had been radicalised and groomed online into believing that life under Isis would be some kind of religious utopia.

Instead it led to an early death.

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France and Germany are to pressure the EU to let them break one of the most central technologies of the internet.

The two countries plan to ask the European Commission to force technology companies to limit the encryption used to keep messages private.

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When Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist, requested to see his personal data that Facebook stored on its servers, he was mailed a CD-ROM containing a 1,222-page document.
That file, which would stretch nearly a quarter of a mile if printed and laid end-to-end, offered a glimpse into Facebook's appetite for the private details of its 1.65 billion users.

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An article for parents (with some swearing and colourful language) which provides a useful overview of teenagers and the benefits and challenges of social media.

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