As for the mother who created the fictional character – SHAME ON HER! Since she was flirting with Megan to gain her trust, I almost feel as if the mother should be charged with being an online sexual predator. She may not have met with her for that nature, but the intent of getting her to fall for her and speak romantically is still the same. It’s a shame that because of her actions she’s caused a child to commit suicide and destroyed a marriage.

Kids are going to be kids. Parents need to monitor and talk to their kids, but they also should not try to be a “friend” and get overly involved as this mother did.

Your workshop needs to highlight the good and the bad. I’d also look at Steve Dembo of the Discovery Educator Network’s presentation about how your online profiles are your new permanent record. There was a boy in Tampa, FL who was shot by some gang members. The boy was well loved and seemed to be popular. The parents were shocked however when they read his MySpace Page, where he boasted about guns, money, and his abilities. His name was CJ Mills (Cedric Mills of Tampa, FL). So ask your students, are they writing anything on there that they would be upset if mom and dad read or might even point to them if a crime was committed.

Best of luck with your presentation.

I share your desire, and Carolyn Foote who also commented here, to share a balanced perspective on the issues of Internet safety, cyberbullying prevention, and online social networking. This is the #1 topic I am being asked to present on these days. I am actually struggling right now to decide if I need to write many of my thoughts and ideas down in a book that I publish as a free PDF download– or if I should continue to put that off and work on my dissertation. I want to do both, but my sense of the importance and timeliness of this discussion is acute. There is more to say than we can say in a 45 min or even 90 minute presentation. People hear snippets here and there, and they need to have a chance to listen deeply to more than just sound bytes and bad headlines. The bad headlines get their attention, but what should people DO about those headlines besides get scared? It seems the news media wants to heighten the fear factor in many cases to boost ratings, readerships and viewers, but in the long run that is not constructive for helping find proactive ways to address these issues in practical ways.

Carolyn’s point is well made: This is an extreme case, we shouldn’t take this as the norm. The Creating and Connecting Report from August 2007 is good to reference in terms of statistics, although I still want to find out more about the sample population. (urban or rural what states of the US, what grade levels, etc.) Edublogs is not letting me embed the direct hyperlink, so here it is without the preceeding h t t p …

files.nsba.org/creatingandconnecting.pdf

I think, as I suggested in my post, highlighting positive ways kids are using digital storytelling to make a difference in the world are great to highlight. The digital stories created by Dr Tim Tyson’s students at Mabry Middle School are great to highlight.

mabryonline.org/podcasts/

This Generation Webb video on YouTube is a good example to show. There are lots more.

youtube.com/watch?v=_Hw2EkVlW5A&feature=PlayList&p=99403C6BDD1574C3&index=1

I agree we need BALANCE and reasoned approaches to this, not extremist, reactionary responses.

It’s easy to scare people off the Internet. It’s much more challenging, as well as important, to help them learn how to use it safely and effectively. It’s much easier to ban a website, even one like Google Documents, than work with people to learn safe and appropriate use. Yet that is the challenge to which we must all rise.

Thanks for the letter, Cathy. Sorry you couldn’t leave this as a comment on my blog!

Wes

I guess my point was–parents hear the constant fear messages, so by the time children are older, the whole idea of social networking has been judged and discounted, because that’s all the message that gets out there.

The media promotes that “sensationalized” fear message as well.

Does that mean there aren’t dangers? No, it doesn’t, and they are real and serious dangers as this shows.

But I have to point out, that our children had these dangers before MySpace–when someone befriended them at the mall, or playground or skating rink, or in many other ways.

This is an appalling situation, but ironically it is adults who perpetuated it.

I can’t emphasize strongly enough that I think in order to counter the massive “fear” approach–we as educators need to have wise and balanced approaches.

What are wise uses of these tools? How are students using them in positive ways? What are warning signs to watch out for?

Relationships among teenagers are a very powerful influence in their lives, but we all have to remember that those relationships existed long before social networking tools, and were just as upsetting and devastating.

We had a recent workshop showing MySpace and Facebook, and one of the helpful things was just having someone show what the tools were like–someone who used them.(our tech person). So he could share the good–and positive uses–and the also not so good.

We have to remember–it’s not the tools, it’s the people.

I think you are on a good track talking about best practices for safety online. I just think we have to temper that with reasonable judgment.

There are many many positive relationships and good aspects to building networks on line for both children and adults.

Frankly, this case is bizarre. How many parents do you know that would do something like this? I would wager not very many–and we can’t treat the bizarre like it is the norm.

On the other hand, it is reasonable to have good healthy practices, wise uses, and active parenting.

I’ll be interested to see how this goes.