Editor's note: Nate Green is a Common Sense Ambassador and an Academic Technology Coordinator at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. He teaches middle and high school students about the internet, social media, and AI.

Far too often, we play whack-a-mole with incidents of online trouble and blame individual students for their struggles on social media. We recommend self-control and set screen time limits. Yet every two years, Common Sense's data shows our students are spending more time online, and the most recent data makes it clear many of them aren't all right.

It's no wonder our students are struggling. They might open social media only to be confronted by tons of posts from peers, professionals, and influencers who seem to be living their best lives, offering tons of advice, opinions, and products to "help" everyone else live theirs.  And if that's not enough, at any moment, a single post from a classmate can bring their whole world crashing down.

In addition to the design features that make devices and apps so compelling, kids are steeped in this kind of content daily. So rather than reactively blaming the individual, we can proactively pursue systemic, community-wide solutions. That starts with involving the individual's friends and mentors to help address digital concerns like distraction, cyberbullying, well-being, and FOMO. 

Here's one idea: Help students name an "accountabilibuddy." One or more students can work together to help each other navigate digital dilemmas. No matter what a student's struggles are, having an accountabilibuddy gives kids support from someone who gets it in a way adults might not. This peer can step in and counsel their buddies through these issues, understanding their strengths and needs to help them establish healthy, balanced technology use. You can use advisory, digital citizenship/health classes or a team meeting to facilitate pairing accountabilibuddies and talk about how they can help each other. 

Plus, empowering individual students to step up as mentors and leaders will build a stronger, more resilient school culture. Groups of students—friend groups, grade-levels, extracurricular clubs/teams—can discuss and set norms and best practices. And while they can step in when tensions arise, they can also consult with an adult mentor. The process can also encourage in-person communication and reinforce values. It counters the current status quo on digital platforms where endless information streams can, at best, distract our students and, at worst, hinder their character and intellectual development. 

It may be challenging, but embracing a proactive, skills- and community-based approach to handling online issues will deliver lasting benefits in a way that blame and incident whack-a-mole never will. In addition to making digital citizenship instruction an integral curriculum component, we can empower accountabilibuddies to help each other so that our students can grow into the empowered, ethical digital citizens we want them to be.

Best,
Nate