Can you share your church's social media policy for Youth leaders?

Dianne, 

There are many things that we need to be careful of when using social media as part of our interactions with youth but I personally see it as an excellent way to stay connected with them. Now, I am still a little new at the current church I am at but at the one i used to attend, we didn't have any 'written on stone' policy but here's what we did. 

We used Facebook to stay connected with the youth. The church is in the city so almost all the youth are on facebook so we created a group that was specifically for the youth and leaders only. Parents were not allowed to join the group as we felt it was the youth's page. As leaders, we had the freedom to sensor everything and created groups, events, etc. and all the youth were connected with what was happening within the ministry. 

Some people are very nervous about posting pictures online. I can understand this and we only posted pictures online within our group. And if anyone didn't want their picture online, we took off any that they were on. 

I also know other Leaders that have a blog and keep everyone posted with what's happening via their blog. I like the idea and wish I could 'blog' better myself. I do it once in a while but not as often as I wish.

The other thing I enforced which some of the youth didn't like at the beginning was a 'no cell phone, no mp3 players' at youth group. I find that they get distracted and lost with having them around and the social part of youth group goes down the drain. They didn't like it at first but slowly got used to it. They could have it on them but NOT use it unless they had to call home. 

Well, I hope this helps a little bit, I'd also would love to hear what anyone else has done. 

Dan Ponsen