A Scout is to be Trusted

Hello Dear Reader

I was reading the latest copy of Scouting Magazine and I came across a very interesting letter.

The letter was commenting that in Scouting Magazine April/May issue it said “There is a growing tendency to promote the use of Social Networking sites among our Members” and that both Facebook and Twitter restrict the use of their service to people over the age of 13. The letter went on the comment that should we [Scouting] be promoting scouts to partake in something which “the providers themselves consider unsuitable for a large part of our membership” and that the letter also indicated that by posting information in this way we are encouraging young people to break the rules.

While I agree with the response that Scouting Magazine gave to the letter it did get me thinking, I am involved  predominantly in the Explorer Scout section and therefore all the young people I work with, when asked by Facebook or twitter are you 13 or over can click Yes with guilt free.

However I know a quite a few Scout group Facebook pages where groups provide mainly photos sharing from activities which the group took part in. Obviously little Jonny and Little Jane are not tagged or named in any way however should they want to be part of this group they either need to get their parents to sign up to Facebook or “Break the Rules”.

I would guess that most scout groups would say that the Facebook page was there to provide information for the Parents not for the young people to be part of, however isn’t inclusion what Scouting is all about.

So the questions still remains “A Scout is to be trusted” and should we ask a scout to break that trust to be included in something the Scout Group is doing?

I would be very intrested to know your thoughts

TTFN

K

TTFN

Kiff

©ChrisMeadows2012

Hello Reader – Are you new to Jabbering All Day Long can I suggest that you check out our Starter for Ten Page which will hopefully give you a guide  as you take your first couple of footsteps around this site.