Way back in March I posted a TARGET about myspace.com and how to help our
students with cyber safety. This was sparked by the realization that the
things being said on sites such as myspace could be very dangerous as well
as shocking to the teachers (and parents) that read them. I received many
requests for a HIT, and many stories of being in the same boat.
Some of the suggestions were parent related, such as monitor your child's
page, password protect your computer, sit with your child and discuss some
of the things seen on the site.
As for our school, we are still discussing ways to turn this into a
"teachable moment" as well teach cyber-safety and create a safe online
community for our students. We held a "conference" for our middle schoolers
and brought in experts in many of the areas of problems facing our teens.
It was VERY successful, and we hope to continue it in the future. Below are
a few of the suggestions. Thanks to all those who responded. Enjoy!
*** I don't know if this will help or not, but we had an EXCELLENT
presentation on
myspace this past Friday for our staff development day. It was put on by a
NY State Trooper who is in charge of the school resource officers in NYS
high schools. I don't know if PA state police have a similar program, but
it would be worth looking into.
*** I-Safe is excellent
*** Do you teach the i-safe program? www.isafe.org . Great program,
teaches about internet safety, empowers the kids to take care of themselves
and make good decisions online. Of course, there will always be those that
don't/won't/can't
make good choices...
*** Perhaps parents can be taught how to see if their kid is a MySpace user,
and then the parent can just, with no advance notice, of course, sit down
with their kid and have their kid open it WITH them sitting there. I'm sure
it could provide an opportunity for dialogue, which is what we're after
anyway. Of course, the parent may be blindsided by what he sees, and the
first reaction may
not be the most productive one if the parent is shocked out of his wits.
Please let us know what you find out. It's something all of us are
wrestling with.
*** In a neighboring school district, a session was held in the evening that
involved local law enforcement. While it was not as well attended as some
would have liked, the message definitely got to those in attendance. The
local newspaper covered it well and that probably reached other parents.
*** The Sunday school answer is "Education". We are trying to deal
with it at our school. One of the tech guys, the director of
character education, and I are working on a power point
presentation. We are going to have a special assembly for our
middle school students outlining some of the good points of
social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook, what the
research about posting on such sites shows about how these
posting can affect college admissions, finding a job and how the
information can be used by others (there have been several teen
arrests based on information they have posted on these sites).
For our upper school students, we are meeting with student
leaders (honor council, class officers, etc.) to present our
findings and enlist their help in getting the word out to their
peers. Having this information available to parents via
newsletters, links from the web page to articles, etc. may help
parents understand what these sites are and how they are being
used and what kinds of information their students are putting on
them.
As for how to get around the "private" thing, I'm sure there's a
way because, as we all know, very little online is truly
private. Have students been creating profiles of their
teachers? I'm not sure, but that might just be
illegal...slanderous or something. Where their rights of free
speech stomp on teachers (or other students) rights to not be
misrepresented or slandered is where the police get involved and
they can certainly get around the "private" label. Once we get
our power point presentation ready, I will see about getting it
posted on our site and will send you the link.
*** Hi. I have still at home a 17 year old and a 14 year old. Both are
required to give me their username and password for all computer
activities. They know that I frequently check their myspace (and xanga)
postings by logging in. I also have my own myspace, and they are in my
friends group. And their friends (and parents thereof) know to do the same
thing. Please don't overlook the xanga site. It is just like myspace.
Please encourage your parents to keep control of their kids - even while
they are on the computers.
*** Our local sheriff's department sent a detective to speak to librarians
and technologist within our school system. It was quite an eye-opener. She
discussed the problems with myspace and the other one--facephoto? <note-
facebook> She
demonstrated a website netsmartz.org which have sections for educators,
parents, and others. There are videos to watch about teens and children who
have been a victim by internet predators. One of the best was Tracking
Teresa, which showed how a girl just gave her name Teresa01 in a chat room.
Within 20 minutes, you
could find her full name with parents' names, phone number, address and
school. We in turn are expected to present this to our faculty and
parents. Try the webpage. It is great.
*** Although our district is "blocking" myspace, our kids know all about
proxies and how to get there anyway. I don't know how to view private
profiles, but I set up an account with a fake name and saw what our kids are
saying and doing there. Getting the Vision software to monitor computer use
has helped, but I'm so busy
it's impossible to constantly monitor.
***We had quite a problem with myspace.com also. My sister, Tech Goddess,
and me, Library Media Specialist, could not make the administration
understand the danger of this site. Finally, we printed some of the pages
and showed it to them. They were in shock at the personal stuff kids told
about themselves (we have grades 7-12 in our school). The admin called some
parents into the office and showed them the pages. If you are caught on
anything
such as myspace you are banned from the computers for the rest of the school
year. Be sure to watch out for xanga.com also. We currently have 5 students
banned. One student is a senior and takes my electric typewriter to his
English class each day. It was a real wake up call for him. Good Luck.
*** I really don't know what more we can do about
educating parents. It's been in the national news, on
TV and public access programming. The week this was a
headline story in our local paper we had 3 people show
up for a presentation on this topic! Not my kid!!!! If
they know about it, they have to do something about
it!!!! They don't know what to do - seems like the
word "no" is not in their parenting vocabulary.
We have also had several articles in our school
newsletter and a cyberbullying presentation on our
website.
*** our local newspaper just did a story on this topic. I would call the
editor of your local paper and ask them to do an article as this will reach
at least some parents. Good luck to you! I had a 4th grader come in and tell
me she has a page and she thinks it's lots of fun. So much for their age
requirements! However, according to the article, the My Space people will
remove content that is objectionable, bogus or libelous if you advise them.
*** We're in the same boat, and unfortunately grabbed some ink from the
newspaper for suspending 20 or so HS students for pictures of drinking on
Xanga and Myspace. (Suspended from activities, not school.)
I have (w/ admin blessing, 'natch) saved some myspace and xanga sites as pdf
before my students had the opportunity to block them out. This had the
additional benefit of allowing me to blur some of the more questionable
images and black out names. You might also try http://www.archive.org and
see if the sites are
still posted. This site has saved every internet site since day one, and
allows you to use their search engines as if it was the day you click on to
access. It's surprising to see what you can find. (And interesting to hand
to students who think it "goes away.")
If you're really devious, it's easy to be a 16 year old boy, and most
kids aren't savvy enough not to make you a "friend." Use your old hs
yearbook photo, they'll never catch on. They think teachers aren't quick
enough or devious enough to come up with this plan. If any of these kids
list you as "friend" you can then click through to any of their
acquaintences. Again--I'd stress the importance of clearing this with
administration to avoid any misunderstandings.
You should also stress to parents that colleges are now searching
potential candidates blog profiles. I know of a student who will not be
attending the Air Force Academy due to material on their web-log. Our
district policies can be found here (if it helps:)
http://www.egrps.org/news/blog.html
*** Our district has blocked MySpace. I have been experimenting with
Think.com, which is a communication tool for kids and ONLY kids available
through Oracle (the Thinkquest people). It is an ordeal to get registered,
but that is exactly what makes the hosting so safe. Students get space to
develop an on-line presence viewable only to other users of Think.com, and
email accounts. They can set up all sorts of voting tools, and messsage
boards, but all content is subject to review by teachers and administrators.
You might want to give it a look. Oh- it's free and it has no
advertising. I think it's important for kids to know how to use the
communication tools of the next generation, but like you, I'm uncomfortable
with letting them into space that may be unsafe. Good luck!
Carrie Higgins, Library Media Specialist
Wissahickon Charter School
Philadelphia, PA
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