With recent events of youth sharing inappropriate photos of their peers, the Foothills School Division is working to make sure parents are informed on social media and cyber bullying.

Doug Stevens, director of distributed learning for the division, says FSD has online resources available for parents at anytime and also host school councils where they touch on the subject.

Stevens says he recommends parents do a bit of research on popular apps.

"Ask your child what social networks they belong to," he says. "If they have a phone or a tablet periodically check their browser history and see what services and apps they've installed and make sure you know what those apps do."

He adds many teens are using apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Ask.fm, Twitter and Facebook.

Whether or not parents are "following" or "friends" with their kids on social media, Stevens says they can still stay in the loop through others.

"Whether you 'friend' your child or somebody else that they trust and you trust friends them, because they don't want you to see what they're posting online because it might be too personal from their lens, but having somebody else like an aunt or an uncle that they trust be a friend of theirs online so that they can see what they're posting and raise the alarm bells if something nasty goes up online."

Stevens adds educating youth on the potential consequences of their actions through social media is key. He says everything posted on apps (including Snapchat which claims to no longer allow access to photos after a certain number of seconds) has the ability to be captured, which means everything posted online, the moment it's out there, the user no longer has access to it.

On Thurs. Jan. 14 at 7:00 p.m. FSD will be hosting a Social Media Parent presentation at Oilfields High School.