QUICK TIPS ON PRIVACY, SOCIAL MEDIA, HEALTHY BOUNDARIES
While this portfolio's emphasis is not on how to maintain safe spaces while doing digital ministry, digital safety is still an important consideration! Please use the FAQs below as a starting point for a broader conversation with your community about how to keep your members healthy and safe while using digital tools. I am a boundary trainer for the Southwest Conference of the United Church of Christ in the area of technology--if you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss them more!
click the questions below to learn more
Churches should post and declare publicly that they are streaming. Consider educating your congregation about privacy issues and consider a policy of not using last names when broadcasting. Some organizations use a sticker on a nametag or a different color lanyard, for example, to indicate people who do not want to be photographed or filmed.
Yes, but only if you can use group chats! Text-based conversations, including emails, are like being in a room one-on-one with a minor. Many churches and organizations (ex: the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America) have adopted a policy that no minor should ever be alone one-on-one with an adult.
Most platforms, including social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, include group chat options. Simply include a parent or another trusted adult leader on the chat.
Assume anything you post online (email, text, social media) is PUBLIC. People can easily forward or screen shot "private" communications. Do not ever share anything over email, text, or on social media (including in "private" groups) that you are not comfortable with your parents, grandchildren, boss, partner, Conference Minister, and an opposing lawyer seeing.
My church asks parents sign a form giving the church permission to photograph or stream their children. Children without a signed form do not appear on film.
Educate your congregation about Social Media posts - never post a photo of a minor without the parents' explicit permission, even if you took the photo at a church or public event.
That's a great idea! A social media policy could include:
- What activities are / are not allowed on machines at the church
- Confidentiality agreements - ex: an agreement to not post other church members' stories, images, or private information on social media
- Expectations around civil conversation and conduct on church platforms (like a church Facebook page).
- Church directory usage - expectations around what is and is not appropriate to share and with whom (ex: using the directory to solicit business or political contributions)
- Communication times - clarity around when and how to contact church members and staff (ex: not using the Church Administrator's personal cell phone number to ask questions on their days off)
- Information verification - an understanding that members will verify information before posting it to social media
- Social Media policy for staff and volunteers - if people are using social media in an official capacity on behalf of the church--guidelines for content and conduct.
- Clarity around what clergy and staff may post to personal vs. professional social media platforms (and clarity about which social media platforms are "official" accounts tied to the organization)
The best strategy is to communicate early and often with members of your organization! Consider the additional recommendations below.
Text: Excellent for quick information-sharing. It rates poorly as a tool for communicating emotional topics or for lengthy discussions. If you have strong feelings about a topic or the topic itself is charged, DO NOT USE TEXT. Human communication is largely non-verbal! Albert Mehrabian, a researcher of body language, found that communication is 55% nonverbal, 38% vocal, and 7% words only. If you're only using text, you're missing the other 93%! People project tone and subtext that is often not there. Ideally, use text for information like dates, times, and factual clarifications. For example: "Are we still meeting on Zoom at 5?" If you must use text beyond simple data communication, consider using emojis to help clarify your tone (make sure you know what they mean first! For example - a skull means laughter for Gen Z). Do keep in mind that text is preferred by some people with auditory processing issues or other disabilities that make voice or in-person conversations difficult.
Email: Like text, email is excellent for communicating factual information. It is also good for sharing newsletters and attaching articles or images. It is NOT well-suited to emotional or charged conversations! However, if there is a legal situation in the process, email can be a valuable tool for documenting official communication.
Phone: Phone calls, Zoom, and in-person meetings are much better for brainstorming complex issues with a group or for working through emotional or otherwise charged topics. They are less effective for people with social anxiety and certain disabilities that make audio processing more difficult.
Your location and what you're wearing may impact how you engage in conversation on the phone or over text. Think twice before having a conversation over text at a time or place you would not be comfortable having an in-person conversation.
For example - in your living room at 5PM - that seems like a fairly normal place from which to chat with a church member or pastor. 3AM in your pajamas in bed? Not so much. There are of course exceptions for pastoral situations (ex: if you would be talking to your pastor from bed in pajamas because you are in the hospital about to undergo a procedure)
Scams are getting increasingly convincing and complex. Here are some things you can do:
- Groups like the AARP have excellent articles on scams. Include links to articles on spotting scams in your newsletter
- Develop a code word so church members can verify clergy or volunteer identities if there is a suspicion voice cloning is being used.
- Educate the congregation on how to look at the source of an email and check it against known contacts.
- Encourage members to call and verify any time someone affiliated with the church sends and email or text asking for money or gift cards.
Church of the Good Shepherd, UCC | Albuquerque, NM
Pacific School of Religion | Berkeley, CA
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