Child Welfare Information Gateway
Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
  • Administration for Children & Families
  • Children's Bureau
Child Welfare Information Gateway
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   

Home Topics Publications Library State Resources More Tools & Resources News & Events
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Free Subscriptions
  • Resources in Spanish
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Resources in Spanish
  • Shopping Cart
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Family-Centered Practice
      • Philosophy and Key Elements of Family-Centered Practice
      • Family-Centered Practice Across the Service Continuum
      • Engaging Families
      • Family-Centered Casework Practice
      • Family Group Decision-Making
      • Engaging Communities to Support Families
      • Creating a Family-Centered Agency Culture
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Definitions of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Identification of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Risk Factors That Contribute to Child Abuse and Neglect
      • People Who Engage in Child Abuse or Neglect
      • Impact of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Child Abuse & Neglect Fatalities
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
      • Overview: Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Promoting Child & Family Well-Being
      • Public Awareness & Creating Supportive Communities
      • Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs
      • Developing & Sustaining Prevention Programs
      • Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention
      • Evaluating Prevention Programs
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Introduction to Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect
      • Assessment in Child Protection
      • Differential Response in Child Protective Services
      • Child Protection Casework Practice
      • Responding to Child Maltreatment Near Fatalities and Fatalities
      • Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare
      • Collaborative Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
      • Supporting Families With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
      • Introduction to Family Support and Preservation
      • In-Home Services Involved With Child Protection
      • Family Support Services
      • Resources for Managers of Family Support and Preservation Services
      • Family Preservation Services
    • Out-of-Home Care
      • National Foster Care Month
      • Overview: Out-of-Home Care
      • Foster Care
      • Group and Residential Care
      • Kinship Care
      • Casework Practice in Out-of-Home Care
      • Transition to Adulthood and Independent Living
      • Placement Decisions
      • Resources for Foster Families
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Overview: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Reunifying Families
      • Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families
      • Permanency With Relatives and Kin
      • Guardianship
      • Permanency for Specific Youth Populations
      • Legal and Court Issues in Permanency
      • Interjurisdictional Placements
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families in Permanency Planning
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families After Permanency
      • Resources for Administrators and Managers About Permanency
      • Resources for Families About Permanency
    • Adoption
      • National Adoption Month
      • All-In Foster Adoption Challenge
      • Children's Bureau Adoption Call to Action
      • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
      • Introduction to Adoption
      • Ethical Issues in Adoption
      • For Adopted People
      • For Adoption Program Managers & Administrators
      • For Expectant Parents Considering Adoption and Birth Parents
      • How to Adopt
      • Laws Related to Adoption
      • Parenting After Adoption
      • Preplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Postplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Search & Reunion in Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
      • Administering & Managing Child Welfare Agencies & Programs
      • Child Welfare Practice Improvement
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Ethical Practice & Client Rights
      • Evaluating Program and Practice Effectiveness
      • Funding
      • Information Systems & Data
      • Supervising Child Welfare Services
      • System Reform
      • Training
      • Workforce
    • Systemwide
      • Assessment
      • Behavioral Health & Wellness
      • Courts
      • Cultural Responsiveness
      • Diverse Populations and Communities
      • Domestic Violence
      • Human Trafficking
      • Laws & Policies
      • Service Array
      • Statistics
      • Well-Being
      • Youth
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Topic
    • Browse by Title
    • índice de Títulos en Español (Spanish Title Index)
  • Library
    • Library Services
    • Library Search Help
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals Search
    • State-Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Resources From the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Discretionary Grants
      • The Story of the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Video Series
    • Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Webinars
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • News & Events
    • Free Subscriptions
    • Adoption Triad
    • Children's Bureau Express (CBX)
    • The Grantee Connection
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • Home
  • Topics
  • Management & Supervision
  • Workforce
  • Using Social Media in Child Welfare

Using Social Media in Child Welfare

The child welfare field is expanding the role of digital technologies in casework practice. Social media apps have become ubiquitous communication tools for professionals, families, children, and youth, and they are critical for maintaining connections in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the use of social media presents privacy and safety concerns for those involved with child welfare, and agencies must determine how to utilize these technologies while minimizing risks to families and staff.

  • Social media safety

  Social media in agency guidelines and policy

Eye on Ethics: New NASW Code of Ethics Standards for the Digital Age
Reamer (2017)
Social Work Today 
Describes revisions to the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) Code of Ethics written in response to the impact digital technology, the internet, and social media are having on the field of child welfare. The article lists new standards that have been added, two of which deal with the use of social media.

How Child Welfare Professionals Search for, Access, and Share Information: Findings From the National Child Welfare Information Study
Long, Bhattacharya, Eaton, et al. (2021)
Child and Youth Services Review, 130
Includes a study on how child welfare professionals find and use information, including the use of social media. 

NASW, ASWB, CSWE, & CSWA Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice (PDF - 341 KB)
National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), & Clinical Social Work Association (CSWA) (2017)
Presents standards for various uses of technology for social workers to access, gather, and manage their clients’ information and to guide them in their practice. The guide includes information on social media policy beginning on page 18.

Social Media and Child Welfare: Policy, Training, and the Risks and Benefits From the Administrator's Perspective
Stott, MacEachron, & Gustavsson (2017)
Advances in Social Work, 17(2)
Discusses how child welfare agencies use social media and reports findings from interviews with administrators on their views of the risks and benefits of using social media to enhance the well-being of youth in out-of-home care.

Social Media Guidelines: A Guide for Foster Parents and Relative Caregivers (PDF - 140 KB )
Oregon Department of Human Services (2018)
Defines social media and discusses the importance of confidentiality. The guide also includes guidelines caregivers should follow before posting on social media.

Social Media Policies
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Provides a listing of social media standards and policies from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on accessibility, branding, comments, and record keeping.

Social Media Policies for Caregivers 
Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (2020)
Includes guidelines on what is appropriate information to share on social media about children and youth in care.

Social Media: Tips for Child Welfare Workers

Series Title
Factsheets
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 334KB)
Disponibilidad
Ver
Versión para imprimir (PDF - 343KB)
Year Published
2022
Describes the advantages and challenges workers may encounter when using social media with children, youth, and families. Issues that should be considered and tips for handling issues are also offered, as are ways to use social media to support children, youth, and families.

Social Media: Tips for Foster Parents and Caregivers

Series Title
Factsheets
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 337KB)
Disponibilidad
Ver
Versión para imprimir (PDF - 350KB)
Year Published
2022
The benefits of social media are explained and tips for helping foster youth use social media are provided, including: discussing social media with youth, setting house rules early on, setting strict privacy settings, teaching youth to keep personal information private, monitoring use, conducting online searches, and discussing cyberbullying. Tips for social media use by foster parents and caregivers are also reviewed.

Social Media: Tips for Youth in Foster Care

Series Title
Factsheets
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 461KB)
Disponibilidad
Ver
Versión para imprimir (PDF - 479KB)
Year Published
2022
Describes the advantages and challenges youth in foster care may encounter when using social media. Topics include ways that social media can be unsafe, ways to stay safe, and things to ask yourself before you post.

Social Media Use, Attitudes, and Knowledge Among Social Work Students: Ethical Implications for the Social Work Profession
Ricciardelli, Nackerud, Quinn, Sewell, & Casiano (2020)
Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 2(1)
Describes social work students' use of, knowledge of, and attitudes toward using social media and examines the social media's role in ethical social work practice.

  Social media in casework practice

Developing Personalized Social Media Policy for Social Work Practice
Hitchcock (2021)
Includes resources as well as a step-by-step approach for how social work field educators can create a personalized social media policy for clients, students, and colleagues. Also available is the Second Edition of the Social Media Toolkit for the Social Work Field Educators.

Facilitating Virtual Parent Support Groups 
AdoptUsKids (2020)
Presents online options for facilitating parent support groups through social media sites such as Facebook and other online platforms like Google Hangouts, Skype, and Zoom. The article reviews tips for child welfare professionals on hosting these types of meetings and advice for helping them run smoothly.

Session Six: Using Social Media and Technology to Engage Children, Youth, and Families [Webinar]
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (2020)
Offers a webinar recording, slides, and discussion about child welfare workers using social media and online technologies to communicate with families. The webinar discusses best practices on supporting child welfare workers in their use of technology.

The Use of Facebook in Social Work Practice With Children and Families: Exploring Complexity in an Emerging Practice
Cooner, Beddoe, Ferguson, & Joy (2019)
Explores how Facebook is used in casework practice with families. The article examines benefits and challenges related to the use of Facebook and social media in the fields of social work and child protection.

Using Facebook Groups to Support Families After Placement [Webinar]
AdoptUSKids (2018)
Shows a webinar on the use of Facebook to support families after placement. The webinar reviews the value of online support to families, the role of the moderator, and how to start an online group.

Using Social Media to Engage Families (PDF-2,693)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children
and Families, Office of Head Start, National Center on Parent, Family and Community Engagement (2018)
Provides information on the use of social media to engage with families and covers developing a social media plan, choosing social media sites to use, how parents and families use social media, and more.

Youth in Care and Social Media Use
Dworkin & LeBouef (2020)
University of Minnesota, Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare
Offers a training for child welfare caseworkers on youth in foster care and social media use. The three-part training covers how social media impacts youth in care, the benefits and risks of social media, a framework for caseworkers and caregivers to reflect on their own technology use, and scenarios for professionals and caregivers to work through together. 

Spotlight On

A Systematic Review of Internet Communication Technology Use by Youth in Foster Care

Sage & Jackson (2021)
Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal

Related Content

Diligent Recruitment

Children's Bureau - An office of the Administration for Children and Families

Child Welfare Information Gateway is a service of the

  • Children’s Bureau
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
↑ Back to top
  • HOME
  • TOPICS
    • Family-Centered Practice
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
    • Out-of-Home Care
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
    • Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
    • Systemwide
  • National Initiatives
    • National Adoption Month
    • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
    • National Foster Care Month
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Title
    • Browse by Topic
    • Índice de Títulos en Español
  • Library
    • Search the Library
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals
    • State Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Children's Bureau Resources
    • Information Gateway Podcast
    • Multimedia
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • ABOUT US
    • How to Report Child Abuse or Neglect
    • Find Help With a Personal Situation
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Glossary
    • Search A to Z
  • Contact Us
    • 1-800-394-3366
    • info@childwelfare.gov
    • Subscribe to Free Updates
    • Chat With Us
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • POLICIES & HELPFUL LINKS
    • Disclaimer and Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Accessibility
    • FOIA requests
    • No FEAR Act data
    • Office of the Inspector General
    • Performance reports
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy
    • USA.gov
    • Download Acrobat Reader
  • ↑ Back to top