Children have always been conscious of their social standing among their peers. The desire to belong to a group can be expressed by the clothes they wear, the way they speak, hair style, what they watch, what they read, who they hang with, where they shop, and more recently, whether or not they participate in an online social network such as myspace, Xanga, and Friendster. Web sites such as these allow students to create their own 'space' in a matter of minutes. They can post any information they want including photos. In addition, these sites allow users to invite their friends and to link to their 'space,' find common friends, and interests, etc. The internet has, in effect, become a great place to hang out and social networking sites such as these make it easy and fun. They help students belong by letting them feel accepted, respected, included, and connected.
District 211 is committed to helping parents and teens use the internet safely. The goal of this web site is to provide information in the following areas:
Unwanted people trying to meet children on-line
Access to inappropriate material
Releasing private information.
Participation in illegal activities
Cyberbullying
Exposure to pornographic or sexually explicit material
Tobacco and alcohol advertisements
There may also be sites that advocate taking drugs, violence and gore, misinformation, and hate literature, sell guns, drugs, poisons, or alcohol, that let your kids gamble online, and are portals for viruses or hackers.
To be sure, the negatives seem to outweigh any usefulness of social networking. Looking beyond the teen years, however, may provide a different view. Please take some time to read the following articles that illustrate the upside to social networking.
Building an Internet Culture, Phil Agre, Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/internet-culture.html
First Person: Benefits of Virtual Volunteering for People With Disabilities, The Virtual Volunteering Project, http://www.serviceleader.org/old/vv/atech/comments.html
Pew Internet and American Life Project, A report showing the Internet is of social benefit to many users and showing a surge of women onto the Internet, http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/circuits/articles/11surv.html
Social Networking allows students to find other students who
share the same interests and this can be on a global level.
Parents are cautioned on taking a fear based approach to online safety. Consider the following from the The YouthLearn Initiative at EDC. Created by the Morino Institute, http://www.youthlearn.org/techno/safety1.html.
"A fear-based approach to online safety guidelines is not advisable for organizations; a culture of fear can lead to so much distrust that it defeats the purpose and benefits of the Internet and positive online interactivity. There is risk in any program, whether online or face-to-face. Exercising common sense, adapting your existing offline prevention systems to cyberspace, following the law, educating participants, establishing good tracking of children's online activities, and supervising online interactions are the best online safety measures. Most important, the most effective way to prevent youth from using the Internet for inappropriate activities is to teach them how to use the Internet and related technologies within the context of well-organized, purposeful and engaging activities in an adult-supervised environment. In other words, if children learn how to use the Internet and multimedia technologies in ways that are positive, constructive and meaningful, they will have considerably less interest--and opportunity--to use the Internet for negative or meaningless activity."
With this in mind, please consider the following as effective ways to provide a safe online experience for yourself and your children. Open communication between parent and child will foster a positive relationship when dealing with questions that may arise using technology today and in the future.
The Children's Partnership, http://www.childrenspartnership.org/, provides a PowerPoint presentation, A Parent's Guide to Online Kids, "which arms parents with the information they need to understand what their children are doing online and gives parents tips on Internet safety." They suggest the following six Golden Rules for parents:
Keep Internet in public space as much as possible.
Spend 'cybertime" with your child.
Teach Internet rules & consequences—Parent your values online.
Limit time—keep kids busy beyond screens.
Talk to your child about what they are doing.
Stay involved.
Additionally, they also suggest the following Golden Rules to teach:
Rules from “real” life apply: courtesy, kindness, modesty, dignity, respect for the law and for others, etc
Don’t talk to strangers.
Keep your private information private.
Never agree to meet an online friend without your parents.
There are no guarantees that what you say or post on the Internet is private.
Information, including photos, videos, etc, posted on the Internet can last forever.
Tell your parents if you encounter something uncomfortable.
Don’t reply to unknown screen names on IM (Instant Messaging).
Never open e-mail from strangers or click on any attachments from an unknown sender.
Find the “good” online – good friends, good Web sites, good games – and enjoy
There are many websites that offer suggestions similar to those from The Children's Partnership. The overriding theme is communication between parent and child. The following websites are examples of you might find should you search for Internet Safety information on your own. This list is by no means exhaustive and is provided as a starting point only.
This site provides awesome tips that teach you how to be safe when you are on the web, in chat rooms, instant messaging, using email, peer -to-peer services, newsgroups, forums and bulletin boards. For an eye opening experience on how easy it is to be fooled by someone on the other end, try playing their game, ID the Creep.
http://www.idthecreep.com/
"The NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational safety resource from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) for children aged 5 to 17, parents, guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children how to stay safer on the Internet."
http://www.childnet-int.org/
This is a non-profit organization headquartered
in London. They work with other organizations to help make the internet a safe
place for children. Childnet is also responsible for a very popular and award
winning website called Kid Smart. This web site provides lesson plans,
leaflets, posters, activity days and interactive games.
http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/parents/
This website provides a video for parents with good, practical steps you can take to help making the internet a safe experience for you and your children: http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/POL_IPSA_Mac%2BPC/main.html
Kid Smart proposes that kids be SMART when online:
S = Safe. Always keep you name, address, phone number, private. It's like giving out the keys to your home!
M = Meeting someone you meet in cyberspace can be dangerous.
A = Accepting emails or attachments from people you don't know can get you into trouble. They may contain viruses or nasty messages.
R = Remember, someone online may be who they say they are. Stick to public areas in Chat rooms & if you feel uncomfortable, get out!
T = Tell your parent or guardian if someone or something make you feel uncomfortable or worried.
provides the following links from their PowerPoint presentation,
A Parent's Guide to Online Kids:
Other links:
There are a variety of ways you can help make sure your computer(s) are used in a safe and appropriate manner. This section provides some tips and provides basic instructions.
Visit the internet history. Here's how:
Become the administrator of the computer and make your children guests. Here's how:
Install filtering or internet site blocking software
So your child will not let you see their 'myspace?' Take the computer away.
"30 million children use the Internet, and one out of five kids are sexually
solicited online."
-National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
MySpace, Xenga, Friendster and other such social networking sites have inspired others in the communication industry. Consider the following article that describes a future addition to cell phones:
Cingular to test social networking on the move | Tech News on ZDNet, http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6047789.html
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