Many of you know the work that I do with Marje Monroe and our
organization, ChildrenOnline.org.
I wanted to share a summary of our end-of-school-year research about the
behavior of children/teens online and announce our new book.
First, ChildrenOnline has just published a guide book for middle and high
school students/teachers titled Safe Practices for Life Online. It
contains nearly 90 classroom exercises and covers a wide variety of
topics, from instant messaging and social networks to bullying, scams
targeting kids and tricks for creating great passwords.
Visit www.ChildrenOnline.org for links to both the teacher's and student's
edition.
Summary of ChildrenOnline.org 2007 - 2008 Research
During the 2007 - 2008 academic year we surveyed nearly 2500 students in
grades 4 - 12. This is what the students told us:
1. 66% of all students claim to have internet access from their
bedrooms.
(ANY expert Internet safety will agree that this is not a good idea
for kids under 16 or 17.)
2. Only 33% of students stated that their parents had installed some
type of web filter on the family computer(s).
(We wish this figure were much higher.)
3. 20% of all students reported that they had virtual friends online
whom they had never met in person.
4. 30% of all students said that they had felt uncomfortable online by
something that had happened to them or something they saw.
High on the list of things that made them feel uncomfortable were:
Offensive pictures/videos
Contact from strangers
Being made fun of
Being tricked
5. 55% of all students reported playing a multiplayer game online in
which they could chat with the other player(s)
6. Children and young teens are using adult social networks in greater
numbers than ever before. The percentage that reported having accounts at
social networks such as Facebook and MySpace are as follows:
3% of 4th graders
7% of 5th graders
12% of 6th graders
23% of 7th graders
48% of 8th graders
77% of 9th graders
NOTE: It has generally been our experience that children and teens
under-report behaviors they think their parents would not want them doing.
One example of this occurred when we visited a school this past winter and
spoke to seventh graders. The Internet surveys the students had completed
some weeks earlier left us feeling that they were hiding the truth. Their
survey responses indicated only 17% of them had social network accounts.
We know that this is not typcial of the majority of 7th graders. During
our visit with the students an interesting thing happened. Very soon into
the conversation we asked them if they had a Facebook or MySpace account.
Three students very hesitantly raised their hands out of about 40 and
there was a whole lot of "checking each other out" and "looking at the
floor" behavior. Not only did we feel something was up but so did their
teacher who was present in the room. He stood up and asked the students if
they would feel more comfortable talking with us if he left. They said
"yes." After he left we asked the question again and we estimate that
60-70% of the class raised their hands.
We are also very pleased to announce that Marje Monroe will be consulting
for ChildrenOnline.org full time and we are both very excited that we can
now offer workshops and consulting services to many more schools than we
have been able to in the past. Marje's new email address is
marjem77@gmail.com.
Our free monthly newsletter just turned one year old and has developed a
large following. Archived copies are available on our website as is a
simple form to sign up for future monthly newsletters. We are also very
well along on our next book project, a book intended specifically for
parents. We hope to have it available by the fall.
(Please excuse the cross-posting for those on multiple lists)
Best wishes,
Doug Fodeman
Marje Monroe
Directors, ChildrenOnline.org
================================
Douglas Fodeman
Director of Technology
Brookwood School
Manchester, MA 01944
(978) 526-4500 X6233
================================
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