A programme dubbed “Lit Teens” was designed to sensitise youngsters on the safe use of social media. As social media users continue to grow, experts say youngsters that use social media could face an adverse impact if they are not guided on the best use. Education spoke to some teens benefitting from the programme who, after debate on using social media in productive way, shared their experience. Keza Natacha Agasaro, an 18-year old senior six student pursuing Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology at Gashora Girls Academy, has 8,800 followers on Instagram. “We have a computer lab at school but we use social media under supervision of an IT manager over the weekend. I started to use social media in primary three but my parents have been guiding me. My parents used to tell me to be careful and avoid posting any kind of information. I use it to gain knowledge and various useful information,” she says. She agrees that there was need for a platform to guide teens on using social media in a productive way. “It is better to filter the information on social media because using it in a bad way can affect academic performance,” she says. Boris Karenzi, also 18 and studying History, Economics and Geography in senior five at Kagarama Secondary School, says his parents guided and educated him on using social media. “One of my parents uses social media and they closely follow how I use it and advise me accordingly,” he says. He says he works with some companies, posts their products and gets paid. He says when he advertises products worth Rwf20, 000 on social media, he is paid Rwf5, 000. Malayika Ndabaga is pursuing History, Economics and Geography at Nu-Vision High School. “Social media gave my English skills a boost and teens should use it in similar productive ways,” she says. Ndabaga is also an editor for the school’s newsletter and uses social media to share the published information and advertise it. “I use social media and my mother follows so she knows how I behave and counsels me. At school, we are also supervised while using computers. I started using social media in primary five,” she adds. Gasana Mutesi is the creator of “Lit Teens”, the platform where youngsters meet and discuss productive ways to use social media. “The programme targets youngsters between 12 and 17. They debate on different issues that affect their lives, including how they can manage social media and use it in a productive way. Social media has a good and bad impact. The debate is also shared on YouTube and we will create a TV programme and magazine talking about different issues affecting teens that will be accessed in libraries in their schools,” she says. Gasana says that teens need to be mentored so that social media does not influence them in a bad way.
