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Earlier this year, the ECPAT-USA Youth Education team ([link removed]) partnered with a high school in Hartsdale, N.Y., to engage their entire student body in our Healthy Virtual Identities workshop. Over the course of eight hours, ECPAT-USA’s Education team worked with 450 youth and gave them the tools to recognize problematic behaviors on the internet.

Read on to hear from members of the ECPAT-USA Youth Education team about the experience.

What was the reaction from the students?

Valentina: I would say most students enjoyed our workshop. We had a lot of student participation and even had some students who shared their own experiences with both safe and unsafe online encounters.

Kate: The students seemed to enjoy engaging in discussions about the workshop material we presented. Many students expressed definitive beliefs about what information they would or would not share on social media.

Lucy: I found that the students were particularly interested in discussing various elements of social media and the ways it can be harmful and toxic depending on how they use it.

How did you feel it went?

Valentina: I was glad that we were able to workshop such a large number of students on an important topic like online safety. The school was incredibly welcoming and super nice to us all, so that just made the experience even better.

Kate: It was enjoyable because the students were engaged in discussion during each workshop. At the end of the day, although I was physically tired, I felt that it was a valuable learning experience for me.

Did you, as a team of presenters, learn anything from the day or from the students?

Valentina: I always learn something new with every workshop and new group of students I work with. One specific realization that I did come to upon reflecting on our day is in regard to our conversations on sexting. Although we all already are aware that this is a heavy and uncomfortable topic for most youth to speak about, the reactions of some students to the debate that arises when the topic is introduced just emphasized certain changes we should make to the way we speak about sexting, so that we avoid shaming young people in ways that are detrimental and unrealistic.

Lucy: This teaching experience also had me thinking about how it’s important to clearly highlight different identities in our workshops because we have an opportunity as outsiders to help students feel like they have people they can talk to or relate to, particularly in schools or settings that tend to have more homogenous appearing groups of students.

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