Notes from 4/26 Internet Safety Meeting

Internet Safety talk with Don Buckley at LREI 4/26/10

(A thank you to parent Diane Hoffman for taking these notes)

At the PA Exec meeting today a few of us summed up the meeting for
those who didn’t go.  I offered to post the links that Don Buckley
shared with us on the Exchange so that everyone can view them on their
own time.

Basic points that were made:
The internet is public by default, private by choice.

Don used some terms to keep in mind:
– Persistence – thing don’t go away on the internet.  There is a
digital trail that you and your kids need to be aware of.  (Digital
Nation video)
– Scalability – once you post something you have no control over how
big it can get
– Cut and Paste – it’s very easy to share and spread information.

Our current generation of kids have not thrown off privacy, they just
view privacy as audience control.

Filtering and Blocking of content may work for younger kids – so that
things like graphic images don’t randomly show up on their screens,
but as kids get older they will always find a way around.  It’s best
to keep the conversation open instead of blocking.

If your kids are on Facebook, join.  If you don’t know how, have them
walk you through it.  You can learn about what kind of judgements they
are making by how they help you set up your privacy settings.

Links:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/02/kids.social.networks/ – article on
Social Networking
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/view/ – full video
on living their life online
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/ – video from
Henry Jenkins and Danah Boyd
http://www.facebook.com/help/?safety
http://www.facebookforparents.org/ – Stanford based org that teaches
FB for parents
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U9ktwbb1cg – video on Facebook safety
http://www.connectsafely.org/ – general internet safety site

One thing that Don brought up as the ‘new’ thing to worry about it
sites like chatroulette.  Where you get to video chat with strangers –
however they can just pass on you whenever they want (and there is
quite a bit of um ‘adult behavior’ on there) but it is one of those
things that leads to Digital Bruising.  That is an issue to keep in
mind.  I think the Danah Boyd video talks about this more.

Lighter videos of what this thing is (not necessarily kid friendly)
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1930602
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-4-2010/tech-talch—chatroulette

Phil and Mark were both on hand to reassure parents that our kids, so
far, have pretty level heads about this stuff and some of these issues
are discussed in the Middle School ‘adolescent issues’ sessions.

Please feel free to add to this if you went to the talk by replying to
the thread.  The videos say it better than I did, so watch them!