POULSBO — The North Kitsap School District hosted cyber safety presentations for local residents May 26.

The presentations were designed to inform students, parents and community members about cyber safety and the risks of social media. There were talks given at the middle schools in the districts, as well as evening programs designed for adults.

Charles Leitch, a lawyer with Patterson Buchanan Fobes & Leitch, Inc., has given these presentations for about six years. This was his second trip to North Kitsap.

“The student presentations are designed to try and build some good, safe habits with technology and social media,” Leitch said. “(Such as) how to deal with cyber bullying and just protecting oneself as they go out and expand their reach.

“The parent presentations are a little more involved.”

He said the evening sessions cover the same concepts, but are designed to help teach skills on how to parent with those dangers in mind and “other pitfalls young people may encounter” online.

“Sometimes, kids think they’re invulnerable or think they can say things that are inappropriate or mean without consequences,” Leitch said.

For parents, Leitch said the presentations “are designed to inform and educate and give them pointers and a starting point, and kind of develop that confidence to parent a little more with young people.”

Jenn Markaryan, communications coordinator for NKSD, said these presentations were first held in the district in 2013, in the middle and high schools, as well as for parents after school.

“It was very well received from all of the four schools,” Markaryan said, “and we had a fair turnout when we had the evening program.”

Before the event, Markaryan said the evening presentations were open to anyone in the community, but cautioned that they “may not be suitable for young children,” due to the content that will be discussed.

Markaryan said the reason presentations like these are so important is because of the growing popularity of online social interaction.

“People are connected online more than ever before, and especially our young people,” Markaryan said. “Young kids may not be able to recognize the risks that they’re going to face in the online world, from predators to bullies to bad situations.”

Leitch said, “It’s a reality that young people learn how to communicate with each other online as much as they do bumping into each other in life.”

“One of the reasons that school districts have been getting behind this … is that they recognize that schools can’t do everything in terms of educating kids in terms of social media and cyber bullying.”

Leitch said he’s trained about 20,000-25,000 students in the nation in this area, and has given these presentations all throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and Guam.

He said the response he’s had in the past to these presentations is “often very positive.”

“A lot of the response is along the lines of, ‘Have you told my kids this?’ or, ‘I’ve said the same thing, but they don’t listen to me,’ ” Leitch said.

He added, “I’m just a different person saying it a little differently, so for whatever reason, it’s … credible to kids.

“Sometimes, when parents say it, they tune it out a little bit.”

The student presentations, only in the middle schools, took place during school. The parent presentations were from 4:30-6 p.m. May 26 at North Kitsap High School, and 7-8:30 p.m. May 26 at Kingston High School.

For more information, go to www.nkschools.org and click the “Cyber Safety and Social Media Risks” link in the upcoming events menu.