Social Media Posts Gone Bad: The Consequences

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Can a pro athlete lose his multimillion-dollar job for what he said online? Just ask Jermaine Whitehead, NFL Cleveland Brown’s safety, who was fired Monday for his “unacceptable and highly inappropriate” twitter posts made after a rough game the previous day.

Can a high school student be arrested for “joking around” about having a school staff member killed via Instagram? Just ask Nicholas Godfrey, a student at Fivay High School, who was arrested last week and charged with 1st degree attempt to solicit murder.

Permanency and lack of privacy are two of the most important concepts kids need to understand about the Internet, specifically the use of social media. EVERYTHING is permanent. NOTHING is private. Educators and parents can attempt to explain this all day. However, the most effective teaching tools, in my opinion, are the real-life stories, experiences, and mistakes of others.

More and more frequently, we are seeing an increasing intolerance to questionable, online posts. This year, in the NFL, more than one player has been released from a multimillion-dollar contract (i.e. being fired), in part, for how they voiced their displeasure with their employers, teammates, and fans via social media. The intolerable act isn’t always the same; it may be the message being communicated and/or the specific words that they chose to use. The message the Cleveland Browns delivered to Jermaine Whitehead was his vulgar and attacking tweets will not be tolerated. If you embarrass and humiliate your employer, whether it be an NFL team or simply Panera, through your use of social media, you will suffer the consequences. A Panera employee’s post on TikTok, where she indicates the company uses frozen, bagged mac and cheese instead of fresh, has been viewed more than 10 million times on Twitter. She, like Jermaine Whitehead, was released from her job for her public comments.

Similarly, Nicholas Godfrey illustrates the seriousness of social media posts. There is no “just joking” out clause, especially when it comes to threats of school violence. Sheriff Chris Nocco said “It doesn’t matter if someone says I was joking, it doesn’t matter what their intent is. When you do it, when you post it out there on social media, you’ve committed that crime”.

My hope is that you share these articles and videos with your kids. My experience with teaching students is examples of real-life people are very impactful. It also provides a safe, non-threatening platform to have discussion about concepts of permanency and privacy online. Some questions you could pose to start a conversation are:

  • Do you think it is fair that these people got fired for tweets and posts they made?
  • Does it matter if you use a private account?
  • Should the student have been arrested for joking about shooting a staff person?
  • Will these posts affect them in the future, like finding another job or getting into college?

Let your kids talk. Listen. Hold your tongue. You may not agree with the answers you hear and that is ok. Simply processing their thoughts and articulating their answers is an important part of the process to understanding these concepts and internalizing them to their own online actions.