Social Networking: Keeping Kids Safe
I’m on a kick lately about education and social computing. Part of it is because I feel strongly about the need for educators to learn about this quickly to catch up with their students and part of it is because there seems to be a lot going on in this area. For example the ISTE newsletter has an article out on Social Networking: Keeping Kids Safe that is pretty interesting.
A sidebar that is particularly useful I think is this one:
Social Networking:5 Tips for Educators
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Make sure that administrators are able to access social networking Web sites so they can immediately address any problems. Many districts block the Web site, and even administrators can’t access it.
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If your school has a public group page on MySpace, it is likely that MySpace has designated a student who it deems responsible as the group moderator. Find out who the moderator is so you can monitor the group’s activities for any issues.
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If issues do arise, get police involved if necessary. MySpace is quick to respond to subpoenas for information.
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Try to educate parents. If they don’t know the consequences already, make sure that they do. Most of the troubling activity on MySpace occurs away from school.
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Posting harmful speech, impersonating someone else, and lying about your age are all violations of the use agreements on most social networking Web sites; therefore, requesting that the material be removed is not a free speech issue if the use agreement is being violated.
I have mixed feelings about that last item. I’m not so quick to say that violation of use agreements means that the rules around free speech do not apply. Everything is different when it is a private rather than government site of course but I am hesitant to take actions that are overly chilling of speech. Still I think we need to educate students that lying or posting harmful speech are unethical and harmful activities.
The most important thing in the main article that people need to be aware of is that there are no quick fixes. As Karl Johnson, the president of the technology coordinators special interest group (SIGTC), says, “There is no software out there or technology that is foolproof.” That says to me that education is important and that teachers need to do their job which clearly includes supervision of students who are using the Internet in school.
We also can’t lose sight of the fact that these social networking sites have a large good side to them as well. Schools are using them to teach writing skills, research skills and many other things. I know that development officers in many universities see online forums and other social computing software as a way to keep alumni in contact with their peers and with the school. Community among individuals can be maintained across time and space with social networking software. We have to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water.
