because the use of Facebook repeated comes up in discussions about
Internet safety, age-appropriate use and student online behavior. Though
many schools have different policies around using or accessing Facebook,
we share many of the same concerns.
Through our Internet safety organization, ChildrenOnline.org, we've
surveyed the Internet behavior of thousands of children and teens.
We've learned a great deal about their use of Facebook and the inherent
issues they face, as well as their schools, because Facebook is one of the
2 most popular websites for independent school students across grades 4 -
12. (The other site is YouTube.) I'd like to summarize our shared
concerns and add a few, along with my 2 cents.....
1. For those schools that allow it, the use of Facebook in our communities
can take a huge amount of Internet bandwidth.
-- And for those with access to it, how do we reconcile our conerns that
younger and younger children are using this adult social network. Four
years ago it was rare to learn of a child below 7th grade with an account.
Last fall, for the first time, 4th graders began telling us that they had
accounts. We now estimate that about 60 - 70% of 7th graders have
accounts. These children are too young to be using Facebook or other
adult social networks.
2. Using Facebook (and other similar social networks) takes time. Often,
a LOT of time! The greatest motivating factor for children to use
technology in grades 7 and up is to connect to others. To socialize.
Their irrisistible need to connect with their peers, coupled with the
development of 24/7 accessible technologies, can make the use of sites
like Facebook all consuming. We have concerns for children and teens
today who grow up in a world where they are wired 24/7 without a break.
For many of our kids there is little or no "down time." Some have
difficulty disengaging from their social life. For some, it even raises
their anxiety level to be without their cell phones for a few hours! We
don't believe this is healthy for them.
3. For our students using Facebook (and other similar social networks),
there is a false sense of privacy. Couple this false sense of privacy
with the feeling of anonymity and lack of social responsibility that often
develops from using text-centered telecommunications, and we see that many
students post embarrassing, humiliating, denigrating and hurtful content
in both text, photos and videos. We need to teach them that NOTHING IS
PRIVATE online, especially their social networks. We need to show them
examples of the serious consequences that have occurred to those whose
egregious online behavior has been made public. Students have been
expelled from high schools and colleges. Students have been denied
acceptances to intern programs, admission to independent high schools,
colleges, and jobs at summer camps. Students, and their families, have
been sued for slander and defamation of character. Students, and their
parents, have been arrested.... all because of the content they have
posted in their "private" social network accounts. People are trolling
their accounts. Hackers, scammers, reporters, police, high school and
college admissions officers, employers, summer camp directors...... Adults
ARE looking and they don't get it! Also, they don't realize that the
instant they post something to Facebook (or MySpace or YouTube, etc.),
they've just lost control and ownership of that content. Try reviewing
the privacy rights of Facebook with your high school students. It is
quite an eye opener!
4. There are 1000's of scams targeting teens in their social networks,
especially Facebook and MySpace. These communities are predicated on a
certain level of trust. Our students, though very knowledgeable about
using technology, are often naive and easily manipulated (thought they
would hate to think so). A simple example is a scam that hit Facebook
users late last fall. Many teens had their accounts phished and the
phishers sent out posts from those accounts to their friends that said
"OMG! There are some photos of you on this website" along with a link to
the website. The website showed hazy photos in the background, hard to
make out, that appeared to be somewhat pornographic. A popup told the
visitor that they would have to register for an account in order to view
any photos on the site. I'm certain that many kids were tricked into
revealing a lot of personal information about themselves in this scam. In
another scam that targeted MySpace in the last couple of years, more than
14,000 users were tricked by fake MySpace pages into visiting music web
sites to purchase music for $2-3 per album. Instead of getting music, the
site charged their credit cards $300-600. Kids are easily fooled. They
want to believe what is said to them, especially when it appears that
others believe. Scammers use this trick against them by creating 1000's
of fake pages on social networks that talk about bogus web sites to buy
stuff, products that don't work (e.g. herbal meds) and cool pages that
only result in drive-by spyware downloads.
5. Spyware and Adware installations are very serious concerns for PC
owners. Those of us with PCs running Windows OS in our schools already
devote a great deal of time, money and other resources to these threats.
Giving kids access to social networks in our school environments greatly
exacerbates these threats however. We need to teach our students that
"Free" usually has a price when it comes to the Internet. We need to
teach them how to try to determine if software, such as a Facebook Add-on,
is likely a disguised piece of malware. (Much of it is!) Below are 3
links to articles as examples:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=102800
http://sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2008/08/facebook.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/02/facebook_spam/
By the way, us "Mac owners" are not completely off the hook. Last June,
the first 3 spyware apps were discovered against the Mac OS and late last
fall there was evidence of hijackware that successsfully targeted Firefox
on a Mac.
6. We need to acknowledge that screens act as a moral disconnect for many
of our students. Every day online there are thousands of kids who say
mean and hurtful things because they can. They are increasingly living
their social lives in a world without caring, loving adults watching out
for them, without expectations for their behavior, and without boundaries.
Research shows that children grow up healthiest in a world with love,
communication, structure and boundaries. These qualities hardly exist
online for our children/teens. Instead, harassing language is normalized,
sexualization of girls/women is common place, and the lack of supervision
creates an "anything goes" wild-wild-west. Here is a simple case in
point. Would Texas Longhorn lineman, Buck Burnette, have said the same
thing about President-Elect Obama if handed a microphone at a school
assembly in front of hundreds of students? Would he have written his
posted statement on a large poster and held it up in downtown Houston for
a few hours? I doubt it. Visit:
http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2008/11/06/texas-c-buck-burnette-learns-why-racist-obama-facebook-updates-a/
Our students need to learn to be nice and kind to others online. To be
respectful and thoughtful about what they say and how they act online.
7. Our students have very little knowledge about how much they are being
marketed to; how their purchasing decisions and attitudes are being
manipulated; how their personal information is used, and even how valuable
that personal information is. Most don't understand the damage that can
come from identity theft and impersonation. They are heavily targeted on
Facebook and their data is heavily "scrubbed" and used. Facebook's
announcement about Beacon in Nov. 2007, brought such a huge negative
assault from users that Mark Zuckerberg had to back-step and tell users
that they were automatically opted OUT, rather than IN, as planned. Most
users saw Beacon as a privacy nightmare. We need to help our students
become more media savvy, understand the value of personal information and
how to protect it.
http://gigaom.com/2007/11/06/facebook-beacon-privacy-issues/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13507_3-9829401-18.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2228622,00.asp
8. Our research shows that children and teens are increasingly using
telecommunications technologies, including Facebook, to avoid difficult
face-to-face conversations. For example, it saddens us to hear 16-year
olds say that they would rather break up with their girlfriend/boyfriend
by texting, IM-ing or posting on their Facebook wall than tell them in
person (or over the phone). When asked why, they'll tell you "because
it's easier." We believe this avoidance will have increasing
ramifications on their communication skills through life.
9. Also, children are increasingly turning to making friendships and
building relationships online. This includes the use of Facebook.
Socialization skills in children are best learned in real life. Children
are far too inexperienced to use telecommunications tools to make friends
and build relationships in a healthy and safe manner online.
I have a Facebook account and actually see it as a wonderful and valuable
resource. However, just because Facebook says that anyone 14 years or old
CAN use Facebook, doesn't mean that they should. It isn't an
age-appropriate or developmentally healthy place for our children and
younger teens to hang out. Facebook is not working to protect our
children and the laws in our country are terribly inadequate to safeguard
our children online in general. Not enough is being done to protect and
educate our children/teens against the risks that come from using the
Internet, and Facebook in particular. We (adults, parents, educators)
need to do more.
By the way, ChildrenOnline.org produces a free monthly newsletter about
kids and Internet issues. The issue coming out in a week will be about
Facebook and some of the issues facing kids who use it.
Doug Fodeman
Co-Director, ChildrenOnline.org and
Director of Technology
Brookwood School
Manchester, MA 01944
http://www.Brookwood.edu
(978) 526-4500 X6233
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