At Lakewood Catholic Academy, we remain steadfastly committed to the well-being of our students and fostering a safe online learning environment. We are also passionately dedicated to partnering with our parents to help them in their important roles as their children’s first and best teachers. We are proud to share information about two technologies that can help students and offer guidance for parents.
GoGuardian Beacon
In our ongoing efforts to increase mental health resources and support for our students, LCA has expanded its partnership with GoGuardian to include its Beacon services. GoGuardian Beacon works to notify administrators if the system detects that a child searches, creates, views, or interacts with online content that could be related to self-harm or potential harm to others. Because of this, GoGuardian Beacon will help us identify worrisome online behavior at school and enable us to inform you and work with you when your child may be at risk. This technology is an extension of our current software which we have been using for several years to keep students productive when using technology at school.
GoGuardian Beacon is an important tool because suicide is now one of the most pressing issues facing youth; in fact, 18.8% of high school students in 2019 reported having seriously considered attempting suicide over the past 12 months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, GoGuardian Beacon may help us intervene even when children have difficulty asking adults for help. Research indicates that nine out of ten teens (90%) who report symptoms of depression say they have gone online for information on mental health issues.
GoGuardian partnered with school suicide prevention efforts in developing, designing, and supporting its GoGuardian Beacon product, including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Despite these efforts, it is important to know that neither LCA nor GoGuardian Beacon can possibly detect every situation where a student may be thinking about self-harm or harm to others, but this is one additional tool that we have to assist in as many instances as possible.
Kid Safe GPT for Parents
Parenting in the age of Artificial Intelligence, online gaming, communications apps, and social networking is hard. Even tech-savvy parents struggle to keep up with privacy and safety best practices. Awareness of the risks and an ability to take actions that keep kids safe are critical. Paul Roetzer and his company, SmarterX, built Kid Safe GPT for Parents, an online safety advisor to help parents understand and manage the risks, and protect their kids online. The GPT’s goal is to educate parents on the risks associated with digital interactions—from gaming to social media—and provide proactive guidance to help parents protect their children’s mental health and safety. Kid Safe GPT offers practical advice, empathetic support, and tailored strategies to encourage healthy digital habits for families. This online tool is completely free to use with a ChatGPT account.
Check out Kid Safe GPT here – https://smarterx.ai/kid-safe-gpt
While parents play the most vital role in their children’s support network, all of us at LCA will continue to do everything that we can to keep our students safe and support our incredible LCA parents. We are hopeful that these technologies will assist us in this critically important work.