Internet Safety – It’s all about parents!
Posted by Nadine Norris on November 10, 2008
The issues of internet safety is going to be on the front burner in technology education in Illinois as legislation has been passed to make teaching the concept mandatory as of next school year. I’ve pulled together several articles and resources here. I fear that programs that schools design will be ineffective because kids will see right through the grown-up’s approach to warning children about social networking. The typical approach is to instill fear about sexual predators with little regard to the truth about who engages in sexual abuse of children (most being parents and other people known to the victim). Another typical approach is to stress that the most important part of internet safety is to limit personal information on profiles, with little mention that most harassment occurs by those known to the child in the form of cyberbullying. Some kids see right through all the fear mongering and much of the information presented is dismissed as “lame”. Students who put themselves at risk will not recognize themselves in the presentation of cautionary content, and all others will go with “it won’t happen to me.”
Internet Safety programs need to take technology out of the equation and redirect the message to the parents. Take a look at the description of a program written by Nancy Willard, one of the foremost experts on the subject.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
You should add http://www.responsiblecybercitizen.com to the list. Same ideas and principles of digital citizenship.
Now, while there may be lots of fear mongering, we can’t be naive and downplay everything altogether. True, the stats are low on random stranger predator abductions, but that doesn’t mean the sickos aren’t out there trying. It also doesn’t mean that your child hasn’t communicated with one of them. Anonymity and the false sense of security behind the computer screen is a powerful thing. As far as cyberbullying, it has nothing to do with what you put on a profile and I think everyone knows that (trolls will attack you that way), but the stats also show that most kids won’t tell when they are being cyberbullied. And the effect is not just a black eye anymore – it can be a serious life-altering thing that follows you for years, depending on the severity.
The bottom line is that you can put all the regurgitate tips into practice if you want, but the only way to REALLY keep your kids safe online is to know what they are doing on the computer. Blocks and filters are easy to get around. But if you have monitoring software, like our PC Pandora (www.pcpandora.com), you will know everything they do and will be able to talk to them about it. If you aren’t monitoring and don’t know what they are really doing, how can you be sure they are safe?
There is a big fat line between “spying” (as the timid parents call it) and being responsible… and then another fat line between doing something and doing nothing at all. Parental responsibilities have adjusted in the 21st century. We have to parent accordingly. From the predators TRYING to get to your kids, to cyberbullying (victim of or perpetrator) to downloading illegal music and movies to numerous social network profiles of which you know nothing about… there’s just too much to leave it to the fates and not be monitoring. You don’t have to watch like a hawk… but you have to know.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Thanks for your comment. You have every right to sell your product, but I’m going to stick to original position that fear mongering is an inappropriate response to the issue. “The stats are low on random stranger predator abductions, but that doesn’t mean the sickos aren’t out there trying.” Check your facts, Ken. There have been NO cases of random stranger predator abductions. As far as the “sickos” are concerned, studies show that children who are most at risk are those socially disconnected kids who are prone to grooming and who engage in risking behavior offline. I stress that everyone should read “Online ‘Predators’ and Their Victims: Myths, Realities, and Implications for Prevention and Treatment,” http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/amp632111.pdf and invite everyone to read the transcript and watch the video to the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus found here http://www.netcaucus.org/events/2007/youth/transcript.shtml where experts on the subject of online behavior and child abuse give valuable information based on studying this issue for years. They make the case for understanding the truth about online predators. Frankly, I’ll stick with these experts for my information, as I find it’s important to be aware of bias in resources that I make available to other teachers and parents. I will also stick to my original position that engagement from parents on every level is more important than any filter one can put on their computer. I have a 19 year old daughter, and two sons – ages 18 and 14 that I hold as evidence that I know how important parent engagement can be when fighting against popular culture and poor choices by peers.