Helping kids manage group chats

Group chats can be a great way for a number of people to participate in an online conversation together. It can make organising events and outings easy, it can provide connection and camaraderie and offer support and friendship in a relatively safe, small and private way. They can happen via dedicated group chat apps (such as WhatsApp) or on many of the other social networks as a feature that offers chats away from the more public feeds and updates.  Like everything online however, group chats can be used in ways that are both helpful and harmful. They can quickly become a very public chat where the intended audience is no longer the only audience witnessing the conversation. They can also be a place where drama, nasty behaviours, exclusion and bullying can thrive.