last couple of days, I've seen several suggestions to contact local/state
police or the FBI. Indeed, police and FBI often provide speakers who
address issues about Internet safety for kids. However, I respectfully
disagree and argue that choosing a speaker from the police or FBI is not
the best first choice for the topic of Internet safety.
I have visited many schools who had previously invited speakers from the
police and/or FBI. All have said that the speaker addresses Internet
safety through the lens of law enforcement. ie. pedophiles, kidnapping,
sexting, serious consequences of cyberbullying etc. The presentations are
often scary (intentionally or not) and typically not appropriate for
younger students. While these online risks and behaviors are very real,
they do not represent the whole snapshot of risks online for our students.
Also though contact from pedophiles and kidnappings are horrific, they,
thankfully, represent a tiny fraction of the issues all of our students
face daily.
Additionally, most law enforcement professionals are not likely to have
years of experience working closely with children and teens, nor
understand the developmental levels/needs of children and teens and thus
understand what typically motivates them and drives their behavior. I
believe that the best experts in the field of Internet safety are child
experts who, not only understand developmental levels of children/teens
and their behavior, but also understand what is age-appropriate and
developmentally healthy for children/teens.
Besides the issues mentioned above, there are many more issues that most
of our students face online daily including:
1. desensitization to mean and harassing language
2. feeling empowered to say and do things online because of the sense or
feeling of anonymity and disconnection that comes from communicating
through a computer or other telecommunications device
3. using Internet tools and texting via a cell phone to avoid difficult
conversations thereby losing the opportunity to better learn communication
skills for conflict resolution, navigating relationships, communicating
difficult topics with people in authority, etc...
4. being manipulated in a variety of ways because of their implusivity,
poor/immature decision-making skills and need to be liked and included in
their peer group
5. exposure to age-inappropriate material that forces them to deal with
issues for which they are not developmentally ready thereby accelerating
their development in unhealthy ways
6. learning that it is OK to develop relationships online, sometimes
anonymously or secretively, at very early ages when they are still
developing many basic social skills.
7. trying to use telecommunications tools to resolve conflicts such as
using IM or texting to resolve hurt feelings or an argument
Also, Internet safety experts, who are also experts at understanding and
working with children/teens, understand how to speak to kids at different
developmental levels in age-appropriate ways. They understand how kids
process information and what kids are capable of understanding e.g
concrete vs. abstract concepts, cause and effect, planning for postive
outcomes, etc.
I do not mean to disrespect law enforcement professionals who may be
working in the field of Internet safety. However, I believe that those of
us, such as teachers/guidance counselors/child psychologists, etc...who
have a great deal of experience and understanding of kids, as well as a
thorough understanding of all the problems and issues they face online,
stand the best chance for teaching them how to better protect themselves
and develop life-long skills to reduce their risks online.
Our research has shown that kids are doing things on the Internet at
younger and younger ages every year (such as posting videos of themselves
on YouTube, creating Facebook or MySpace accounts, or social
broadcasting), and that they are being targeted and manipulated more than
ever. We need to provide as much education as possible to help them
navigate the online world.
Doug Fodeman
Co-Director ChildrenOnline.org
================================
Douglas Fodeman
Director of Technology
Brookwood School
Manchester, MA 01944
http://www.Brookwood.edu
(978) 526-4500 X6233
================================
[ For info on ISED-L see https://www.gds.org/podium/default.aspx?t=128874 ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
