Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, blogging, email, the internet and beyond. Whether you are a church leader, children’s ministry practitioner, or someone trying to resource your church in this area, you may feel the responsibility for helping keep children safe online but also want to know how they and you can use it to its full advantage. Technology changes, but it is now a part of our everyday lives. This evening will help enable parents, teachers and youth workers to give young people the equipment they need to get the best out of new technology and to avoid the drawbacks. Internet scare stories and distorted statistics are put into context, clear and sensible guidelines are offered, and you’ll think about how to use social media successfully with children and young people.

Dr Bex Lewis is passionate about helping people engage with the digital world in a positive way, where she has more than 20 years’ experience. She is in New Zealand on a writing scholarship at Vaughan Park, Auckland. She is Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University, with a particular interest in digital culture and the digital environment, persuasion and attitudinal change, especially how this affects the third sector, including faith organisations. Trained as a mass communications historian, she has written the original history of the poster Keep Calm and Carry On: The Truth Behind the Poster (Imperial War Museum, 2017), drawing upon her PhD research. She is Director of social media consultancy Digital Fingerprint, and author of Raising Children in a Digital Age: Enjoying the Best, Avoiding the Worst (Lion Hudson, 2014), of which a second edition is in preparation for 2020. She has a strong media presence, with her expertise featured in a wide range of publications and programmes, including national, international and specialist TV, radio and press, and can be found all over social media, typically as @drbexl, including her experiences of living with incurable cancer.’

Digital Fingerprint

Digiexplorer (not guru), Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing @ Manchester Metropolitan University. Interested in digital literacy and digital culture in the third sector (especially faith). Author of ‘Raising Children in a Digital Age’, regularly checks hashtag #DigitalParenting.