High School Students:  Why You Must Display Caution When Using YouTube 

Are you a high school student who enjoys using YouTube?  You might not only enjoy watching videos on YouTube, but you may also like to make and share your own videos.  Even if you are in high school, you can do so with YouTube, as YouTube allows those thirteen and older to share their videos.  While this can be fun to do, you need to display some caution when making your YouTube videos.  

Display caution when making your YouTube videos?  If you are wondering why you need to do so, aside from the obvious safety concerns, you might be wondering why all the worry.  What you may not realize is that your online content, including your YouTube videos, may be watched by those who are associated with your school.  Those views may come from your friends, other classmates, or even school officials.  That is why it is extremely important that you thoroughly examine your YouTube video content and make sure that no harm can come to you later on.

When it comes to YouTube video content that you should avoid, particularly if you are a high school student, the most obvious is illegal activities.  You do not want to have video of yourself or your friends drinking underage, doing drugs, or committing another crime, no matter how minor it may seem.  As it was previously mentioned, you never really know who will come across your videos. With the way that high schools and gossip works today, if one of your classmates found a video of yours on YouTube it is likely that they wouldn’t keep that video to themselves; they will almost always share it with others that they know.

Another type of video content that you may want to avoid is content that is offensive to other students at your school. This type of content most commonly comes up in video blogs.  Many internet users use video blogs to vent their frustrations or talk about their day.  If you are a high school student, there is a good chance that you may want to discuss school, your friends, or your classmates.  While this is more than possible to do, you will want to refrain from sounding too negative or even threatening.  Although you may just be joking, “I’m so mad I could kill her,” could be taken out of context by someone viewing your YouTube video, whether it is a video blog or not.

As it was previously mentioned, one of the many individuals who could end up viewing your YouTube videos are your classmates or even school officials.  While we would all like to believe that our classmates are cool, not all of them are.  Should one of your classmates find a video on YouTube that they found offensive or poor in taste, they may report it to your school.  Speaking of your school, your school officials may even come across your YouTube videos, as many schools are now using the internet, namely social networking sites, to monitor their students and their activities.  Having illegal activities documented in your YouTube videos could spell trouble for you, in more ways than one.

When it comes to YouTube videos with illegal activities or threats documented in them, the consequences that you suffer, if any, will all depend on the school district in question.  It is not uncommon for school districts to suspend students that they find doing illegal activities, even if those activities were not committed on school properties.  Should you participate in extra circular activities, including sports, you have find yourself suspended from all sports teams or other school sponsored organizations, temporarily or even permanently.  In serious situations, like where threats against other students have been documented, it is not uncommon for the authorities to be contacted.

As you can see, there are serious consequences to not thinking before making and sharing your videos on YouTube.  All high school students, including you, are urged to think about your future, before using YouTube as a source of fun entertainment.

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