Teacher Guide to Student Social Media Guidelines

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Used safely and responsibly, social media enhances education, communication, and learning. New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) convened our own expert teachers and school librarians, as well as students, and partnered with Common Sense Media to develop guidelines to support both staff and students in the effective use of social media. 

The social media guidelines are for all students but note that most social media sites require students to be 13 and older. For the few sites that allow younger users, we highly recommend that students understand the responsibility that comes with having an online presence. Additionally, students should only be using social media if their parent or guardian consents.

These guidelines address four areas:  

  • Digital image;
  • Responsible posting;
  • Considering consequences, and;
  • Cyberbullying.

This document offers ideas for teaching each area (sourced from Common Sense Media alongside the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum, with each lesson aligned to ISTE Standards. Common Sense Media released their K-12 Digital Literacy and Well-Being Curriculum in 2026. There is also a guide for parents and an activity book for students with offline games to help introduce students younger than 12 to these concepts.

In most schools, the school librarian, technology teacher, and / or Technology School Points of Contact (SPOCs) play an important role in ensuring staff and students are prepared for success in the digital age. These staff members can often support other teachers and students with the topics addressed in this guide and may also provide professional learning opportunities.   It’s also important to note that many sites have specific consent requirements that need to be met for students 12 and younger.

Additional Support

For additional information about resources in this document visit the NYCPS social media page.

To connect with others who are integrating digital literacy and citizenship into learning, join the #NYCSchoolsTech Facebook group .

For professional learning, visit the learning opportunities section of our digital citizenship page.

A Note on the Bell-to-Bell Phone Policy

NYC Public Schools has a cell phone and electronic device policy that requires smartphones, smartwatches, and other internet-enabled devices be stored and unused from the start of the school day through dismissal. The guidance in this document applies to school-issued devices and to personal devices outside the school day. Even with phones away during the day, teaching responsible social media use remains essential — most social media activity happens outside of school, where there may not be someone to coach in the moment.

Create the Digital Image You Want

Students learn that to control their own digital images, they must consider how they want the world to identify them. This includes aligning their individual goals with their online images, standing behind their own words, and understanding that families can be helpful partners.

Ideas for the classroom

  • Ask students why image is important: How does the way others perceive them extend to the digital world?
  • Introduce news articles or share stories of young people who have unique opportunities because of their positive digital image or are being denied entrance to the college or job of their choice because of their poor digital image.
  • Have students Google themselves or someone they know and consider how the results might look to a potential employer or friend, a college recruiter, or even a family member.  
  • Ask your students if their parents have ever posted about them on social media. If so, how did it make them feel? Did the posts align with how they want to be perceived? Students may draw pictures to show how they want to be seen by their parents and how they see themselves. (Ex. Playing sports, being silly, reading, etc.)
  • Have your students think of a favorite celebrity. Ask your students: What does that person do to convey a positive digital image? What have they done to convey a negative image? If they have a negative image, how could they fix it? 
  • Ask students to create and share one or more sentences to represent how they want to be seen online. When they look at each other’s social media presence, consider if this is the image they want to convey? If so, how do they know? If not, what can they change to improve the way they are perceived online?

Align with the NYC Public Schools Enterprise Request Management Application requirements

Any tool used with students must first clear the Enterprise Request Management Application  process on the NYCPS InfoHub which provides a data-privacy review and ensure student data is not being used to train AI models.

Implement Responsible Usage in Your School

Educators can find all of the resources mentioned in this document posted at schools.nyc.gov/SocialMedia and may join the associated Facebook group: 

Here are some ideas for introducing these guidelines at your school:

  • Assign the social media guidelines as homework for your students. Print and hand out the accompanying activity book for each student to complete as an extra credit assignment.
  • Host a contest in your classroom and give a reward to students who complete all of the puzzles.
  • Collaborate with the technology educator at your school to demonstrate learning activities using relevant social media sites for students during computer lab hours (if applicable).
  • Provide copies of the guidelines and activity book to colleagues at your school to encourage school-wide implementation.
  • Collaborate with colleagues to share the social media guidelines link in emails, text messages, social media posts, or calls to families.
  • Host an evening workshop or meeting for families at your school.

Responsible Posting

Students learn to think before they post by:

  • Discussing how to be respectful in online social situations
  • Examining how they communicate offline vs. online
  • Getting permission from their teachers before tagging classmates for school-related work;
  • Thinking about whether a parent or relative would be proud or concerned by the content of their posts; and
  • Considering whether a post will be hurtful or helpful, embarrassing or promising, or could positively or negatively affect a future opportunity.

Ideas for the classroom 

  • Review the NYC Public Schools (NYCPS) Internet Acceptable Use and Safety Policy (IAUSP). 
  • Whenever you use a social media tool with your class, review proper posting etiquette.  
  • Start a collection of questionable as well as positive posts and have your students do the same: real world examples are powerful.  
  • Select a social media tool that provides the option to view and approve all posts before being published. 
  • Understand how to use the social media tool yourself before using it with your students.  

Teach Misinformation and Deepfake Detection

Equip students to evaluate content before they share it. The News Literacy Project (newslit.org) and Stanford’s Civic Online Reasoning curriculum (cor.stanford.edu) both provide free secondary-level lessons on lateral reading, reverse image search, and source evaluation — including modules specifically on AI-generated and manipulated media. Common Sense Media  also has middle school (open external link and scroll down) and high school  lessons. Pair these with a recurring classroom routine, such as a “verification of the week,” where the class works through a real piece of viral content together.

  • Have students create a class contract defining proper posting, questionable posting, and inappropriate posting. Have the contract posted in the classroom, and have students sign it. 
  • If you’re not sure of something, need advice, or support, share in the #NYCSchoolsTech group on Facebook or the Digital Citizenship channel of the SPOC & Friends Team. There you’ll find educators sharing ideas and building their learning networks. 

Consider the Consequences 

Students learn to consider the consequences of their online actions, discovering that what they do outside of school affects their lives at school, offline, and elsewhere. They also learn strategies for protecting themselves online such as not posting addresses, social security numbers, and other personal information. 

Ideas for the classroom 

  • Have students create a chart of online activities and potential consequences (both positive and negative) to be displayed in class. Create a handout of the product that can also be displayed at home. 
  • With the class, create a poster with terms, definitions, and examples describing potential benefits (e.g., social action, connecting with experts) and hazards (e.g., phishing, scams, identity theft, cookies) when using the internet. 
  • Have a counselor, advisor, and / or college admissions officer speak to students about the importance of maintaining a positive digital profile. 
  • Demonstrate the strength of various passwords using a site like Passwordmeter. Note: the teacher should provide password examples to prevent students from sharing their own. Avoid having students call out passwords.

Address Social Media and Student Mental Health

Multiple long-term studies link heavy social media use to increased rates of anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, and negative body image in teens. The risk is especially high on image-focused platforms with algorithm-driven feeds. Build at least one lesson in this unit around mental health. Topics to cover: how algorithms shape what students see, why comparison feels unavoidable on certain feeds, when to mute or unfollow accounts, and where to get help. Refer students to your school counselor and your Respect for All Liaison. Also point them to free citywide supports such as NYC Teenspace, which offers free virtual therapy for any NYC teen ages 13 to 17. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is also available by call or text at any time.

Talk About Sextortion Directly

Sextortion has become one of the FBI’s top cybercrime concerns. Sextortion is a form of child sexual exploitation where children are threatened or blackmailed, most often with the possibility of sharing with the public a nude or sexual images of them, by a person who demands additional sexual content, sexual activity or money from the child. This crime may happen when a child has shared an image with someone they thought they knew or trusted, but in many cases they are targeted by an individual they met online who obtained a sexual image from the child through deceit, coercion, or some other method.   Boys are targeted at especially high rates. Most school health curricula now include explicit discussion of how these scams work and what to do. The most protective single message a trusted adult can give a teen is this: “If this happens to you, you will not be in trouble. Come to me, and we will get help together.” Coordinate with your Respect for All Liaison, Designated Liaison for Child Abuse Prevention from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children can help remove explicit images of minors from major platforms.

Lessons from Common Sense Media 

For Middle School

Relationships and Communication – focuses on setting appropriate boundaries, navigating peer pressure, and sexting
(Scroll down for grades 6-8)

Privacy and Safety – focuses on identity theft, data breaches, how website collect personal information and more
Open external link (Scroll down for grades 6-8)

Digital Footprint and Identity – focuses on how what we post about ourselves and others shapes our online footprint and more Open external link (scroll down for grades 6-8)

For High School

Additional Resources 

Standards Supported 

Information Fluency Continuum 1: Using Inquiry to Build Understanding and Create New Knowledge 
  • Investigate Phase: Students recognize the effect of different perspectives and points of view on information. 
  • Construct Phase: Understands and builds on the ideas of others. 
  • Investigate Phase: Identifies and uses a variety of technology tools, including web-based interactive tools, to organize information, create a product, and enhance communication with a real-world application. 
  • Investigate Phase: Takes notes using one or more of a variety of note-taking strategies including reflecting on the information. 
  • Express Phase: Cites all sources used according to standard style formats. 
Information Fluency Continuum 3: Demonstrating Social Responsibility 
  • Demonstrating Social Responsibility: Considers culturally divergent and opposing viewpoints on topics. 
  • Ethical Behavior in Use of Information: Extends respect for intellectual property rights and copyright by crediting sources of ideas as well as directly quoted material. 
  • Ethical Behavior in Use of Information: Credits sources by using correct bibliographic format, according to the style selected by the teacher. 

Cyberbullying 

Students learn the definition of cyberbullying and what to do when they see it happening. 

Ideas for the classroom 

  • Teachers, families, and students should be familiar with the Discipline Code and Bill of Student Rights and Responsibilities and Chancellors Regulation A-832. 
  • Share age-appropriate, real stories from the media and discuss them with your students. Consider having older students help with this.  
  • Discuss how students can behave constructively in such situations and who they might turn to for help if they know someone being bullied or are bullied, themselves. Discuss what the consequences would be, based on the discipline code. 
  • Know your school’s Respect for All liaison and guidance counselor. Find out how they can support you should cyberbullying situations present themselves. 
  • Have students create posters to promote awareness of cyberbullying and tips for help.
  • Have your principal contact your district office to set up a Cyberbullying workshop.

Lessons from Common Sense Media

Additional Resources 

Information Fluency Continuum 1: Using Information to Build Understanding  

  • Investigative Phase: Differentiates between important and unimportant details. 
  • Express Phase: Presents conclusions and supporting facts in a variety of ways. 
  • Investigative Phase: Recognizes statements that can be verified. 

Information Fluency Continuum 3: Demonstrating Social Responsibility 

  • Importance of Information to a Democratic Society: Demonstrates tolerance for different opinions. 
  • Effective Social Action to Broaden Understanding: Helps to organize and integrate contributions of all group members into projects. 
  • Effective Social Action to Broaden Understanding: Seeks ideas and opinions from others, including experts in the field.