Teaching Students to Set Boundaries In-Person and Online

It’s important to learn how to set boundaries for ourselves, but it’s also important to learn how to respect boundaries that other people have set with us. It helps people to stay safe and comfortable in different situations.

Making connections online and through social media can be a cool thing, especially during the pandemic when people weren’t able to connect with others in-person as much. Connecting with others online can also help you to make friendships with people that have similar interests to you. If not many people in your area share the same interests as you, the internet can help you to find more people with those similar interests.

With the rising popularity of making connections online and on social media, it is important that students not only learn about how to set boundaries with people that they meet in real life but also with people that they meet online.

Students need to know to not share personal information with people that they do not know in person or online. And if students see anything inappropriate online, they should report it. Many forms of social media have options for a person to report inappropriate posts and behaviors, and students also have the option to unfollow, mute, or block other users as well.

Another big part of learning about boundaries includes helping students figure out what characteristics make up a trusted adult so they can identify the trusted adults in their lives. This helps to ensure that students have someone safe identified that they know they can go to if they ever need help.

Students should find a trusted adult that always respects their boundaries and helps them to feel comfortable and safe.

Students will not only have to set boundaries with people that they don’t know in their lives, but they will also have to set boundaries with people that they do know. This could be friends, family members, and other people that a student might know. Just because you might know a person does not mean that they are trustworthy. We must look at a person’s actions to decide if they are trustworthy or not.

Everyone deserves to have their boundaries respected. Everyone deserves to be safe. We must teach students to surround themselves with people that respect their boundaries, make them feel safe, and make them feel good about themselves. It’s important to identify the trusted adult's students can go to for help.

Setting boundaries is a healthy part of building relationships with others. Finding trusted adults helps students to navigate through life. This is why we created a lesson called “Identifying What Makes a Trusted Adult” in both our “Mental Health, SEL, and Substance Abuse Prevention for Grades 2-4” curriculum AND our “Mental Health, SEL, and Substance Abuse Prevention for Grades 5-6” curriculum.