I applaud your efforts. I appreciate your approach to these matters as there are few of us that have your legal expertise to do so.
I, on the other hand, can only take a technology approach to addressing Internet Safety as I've mentioned before.
It would seem that you are meeting with great opposition regarding changing the mindset from fear to education, and I'd like to assist in any way possible with an educational, (non-fear) approach to teaching Internet Safety and more. In fact, my goal is to use 21st century skills to teach Internet Safety & Appropriate Use. Additionally, I want to enable teachers to use these tools across the curriculum which goes hand in hand with many of the current educational technology initiatives impacting us today.
However, it would seem I've run into as many difficulties proposing a non-fear based solution to the problem as you have attempting to change the mindset of the problem.
Personally, I've spoken with the Arizona Department of Education, FOSI, iNacol, Accreditation Organizations, Educational Standards Groups, Vendors and with the exception of FOSI it would seem that the best way for me to have someone embrace this solution would be to either give it away for free or spend thousands of dollars to buy a vendor partnership, neither of which I can afford to do as a teacher :)
SO, bottom-line, it's about the kids, so I hope you continue in your labors as I will also continue my search for a partner that sincerely embraces meeting these educational technology needs in a safe environment so we can effectively not only prepare students to address the many issues online today, but enable them to employ technology successfully.
Regards, *******
Joe Frost
CEO & Founder RZONZ,LLC RZONZ.COM
Director of Technology Department Chair Technology Phoenix Christian Unified Schools 1751 W. Indian School Road 602-265-4707 ext. 273
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Nancy, I couldn't agree more with you that the federal government should not be raising awareness about "cybercrime," much less trying to regulate Internet-delivered educational content, if that will be the outcome of the legislation. That way lies censorship and top-down control. So in terms of political outcomes, I suspect we are on the same page. But personally, the message conveyed in your post's title, "Operation Delete Internet Fear," quite honestly would alienate even me. Speaking as a father of a little boy, organizer of http://www.watchknow.org/ and an even newer educational project in planning stages, and co-founder of Wikipedia, I think there is a lot indeed to fear, or at least to avoid, online. Again, we might agree on the means to avoid it. But I spend all day long online, and have done so for years, and the amount of smut and outright crime online, to say nothing of other bad influences of all sorts, is disturbing. I agree that the government has no business in "raising awareness" of this problem, in my opinion--for regular Internet users, you might as well raise awareness of the air we breathe--but conveying the stance that there is no significant problem to begin with looks like a puzzling denial of reality.
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I think it's impressive and quickly forwarded it to my son's teachers.
But, unfortunately, because of the school of thought that Nancy is battling against they can't benefit from it because youtube is blocked and many of the videos on your site are in fact hosted by youtube.
That's the difference we are talking about here.
******* Jeff Hogan, M.S. Instructional Technology Specialist Health Sciences Valencia Community College 1800 S. Kirkman, 4-14 Orlando, Florida 32811 407-582-5564
So why don't you do something about this? Why are you silent now? This outrage! Evil men swallow up the righteous and you stand around and watch! (Habakkuk 1:13)
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>I agree that the government has no business in "raising awareness" of
this >problem, in my opinion- for regular Internet users, you might as well >raise awareness of the air we breathe--but conveying the stance that there >is no significant problem to begin >with looks like a puzzling denial of >reality.
Larry, I've been following Nancy's philosophy for as many years as I've known her on EDTECH. Nancy has never ever denied that there is a significant problem on the internet.
What Nancy advocates is that we teach our children how to recognize these problems.
It's as basic as the "Stranger Danger" we teach our kiddos from an early age.
We don’t tell our kiddos that Strangers don't exist -- we tell them to avoid Strangers.
Nobody claims the internet isn't full of predators. What we hope to teach our children is how to recognize them.
No amount of filters and blocks will keep a truly committed predator from reaching a child. And if that child hasn't been taught the tools to recognize and react to such a threat -- where does that leave us?
******* Jeff Hogan, M.S. Instructional Technology Specialist Health Sciences Valencia Community College 1800 S. Kirkman, 4-14 Orlando, Florida 32811 407-582-5564
So why don't you do something about this? Why are you silent now? This outrage! Evil men swallow up the righteous and you stand around and watch! (Habakkuk 1:13)
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>> I agree that the government has no business in "raising awareness" of > this >problem, in my opinion- for regular Internet users, you might as > well >raise awareness of the air we breathe--but conveying the stance > that there >is no significant problem to begin >with looks like a > puzzling denial of >reality.
> Larry, I've been following Nancy's philosophy for as many years as I've > known her on EDTECH. Nancy has never ever denied that there is a > significant problem on the internet.
> What Nancy advocates is that we teach our children how to recognize these > problems.
> It's as basic as the "Stranger Danger" we teach our kiddos from an early
age. We don¹t tell our kiddos that Strangers don't exist -- we tell them to
> avoid Strangers.
> Nobody claims the internet isn't full of predators. What we hope to teach > our children is how to recognize them.
> No amount of filters and blocks will keep a truly committed predator from > reaching a child. And if that child hasn't been taught the tools to > recognize and react to such a threat -- where does that leave us?
This is actually an example of why accurate Internet safety education is necessary for folks in the field of educational technology. The most important thing about this education is to correct many of the inaccurate assumptions about these concerns - especially the online predator concerns.
Actually, I do not think there is a significant problem on the Internet - I think that there is a significant concern that some youth are at risk using these technologies. So here is what the research shows:
The majority of teens are generally making good choices and effectively handling the negative incidents. Still they are teens and take risks and make mistakes. We can help them make even better choices through more effective education.
The young people at greater risk online are those who have psychosocial problems - engage in risk behavior, have at risk friends, have disrupted relations with parents. So we need more comprehensive approaches to address these concerns.
The greatest risks are not from online strangers - they are from known peers. These risks include electronic aggression, use by abusive partners, sexual exploitation, sexting. And because these harmful interactions involve known peers it is essential that schools mobilize to address these more serious risks - because quite often the harmful impact is at school.
Some myths that need to be corrected:
Stranger danger warnings are effective. They are not. We have to teach young people to watch out for the signs of an unsafe person - stranger or not. Unsafe people tend to be overly friendly and push hard to establish a "special relationship."
1 in 5 teens have been sexually solicited by an adult predator. No, this was primarily teen on teen sexual harassment, some young adult on teen - but some of this could also have been teens pretending to be 18.
Online sexual predation is a huge concern. No, only 1% of all arrests for sexual abuse of minors.
Predators are deceiving teens by pretending to be other teens, tricking teens into meeting with them, or tracking teens down by the personal contact information they post. They are not generally deceptive about age - sometimes they are. They are not deceptive about sexual interest - they look for teens who want to talk about sex. The teens meet with them knowing they are adult men and intending to engage in sex.
At any point in time there are 90,000 predators prowling on MySpace. MySpace removed 90,000 registered sex offenders as of about 6 months ago. But although they provided the entire profile of these individuals to law enforcement, not one had been rearrested for sexual solicitation.
The inaccurate information about predators and the simplistic rules - like don't post photos, names, or school name are, in my perception, the most significant barriers to shifting to web 2.0 technologies in schools.
Also, since most teens think these concerns are media hype - which they clearly are - they are tending to not listen to anything adults might have to say about Internet risk and protective strategies.
My approach to addressing the Internet safety concerns through professional development of educators is strongly focused on undoing the damage of so much inaccurate information presented by the other Internet safety organizations and law enforcement over the last decade. There are clearly some risks online - and teens are making stupid mistakes - and some are being very cruel.
But we have to change our entire approach to talking with them about these issues - remembering that most of them are or want to make good choices online.
Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press)
Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass)
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Yes, young people do face risks online - but just as they face risks in the real world. I have a daughter and son in high school and a son who just entered middle school. Two who are learning to drive.
The research indicates that the majority of young people are generally making good choices online and effectively handling the negative situations that do occur. But they are young. They take risks online, as well as in the real world. We can increase their insight into the risks and effective strategies to prevent and respond to risk through more effective education.
But the research also shows that that the scare tactics approach to risk prevention is entirely ineffective. Fear-based messages and simplistic rules simply do not work.
What does work is the social norms approach. Since the cast majority of young people are making good choices online, we can encourage all young people to make good choices - just like their peers.
What I tell teachers in my materials is that if they try to teach Internet safety by being a "sage on the stage" they will "trip on their togas." The best way to teach these issues is through group discussions - where teachers can help deepen understandings by asking questions. My objective I my materials is to help teachers know what questions to ask.
The research also indicates that the young people at the greatest risk online are generally the ones at greater risk in the real world. These are the young people we need to address in a more targeted manner. But also good educational approaches will help - because we can encourage these young people to follow the lead of their more savvy peers.
It is really difficult for me to find the appropriate balance in discussing these situations. It is hard to communicate about that middle ground.
But I stand by my statement that we have to delete the fear. Because fear does not accomplish anything good. Raise attention to the risks is what is necessary.
Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press)
Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass)
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(snip) The most widely cited statistic is “one in five,” as in the number of children who have supposedly been approached by a sexual predator on the Internet. The origin of this figure is the Department of Justice’s National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which first reported it in 2001. Five years later the center amended the result to one in seven, but by either measure the figure suggests nothing less than an epidemic.
Until you look closer. The actual question posed in the department’s “Youth Internet Safety” survey asked teenagers under 17 if they had received an “unwanted sexual solicitation,” which was defined as follows: “a request to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or give personal sexual information that was unwanted or, whether wanted or not, made by an adult.” Since “adult” in this case was defined as anyone 17 or older, the definition included many would-be high-school Romeos, predators of a highly conventional and not particularly dangerous sort, and also took in a strain of intimate gossip familiar to all teenage girls. As the study’s authors themselves noted, half the solicitations came from other teenagers. Not a single solicitation led to actual sexual contact. Violent sexual predators hunting children are out there, as they have always been, yet they remain blessedly rare, and most young people flee such strangeness instinctively. Only 3 percent of the contacts reported in the survey resembled the one most feared by parents, the adult stranger attempting to seduce a child. (end snip)
Regards, . Randy
-- "Anyone wanting to commit American ground forces to the mainland of Asia should have his head examined." -- US Gen. Douglas McArthur.
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What Nancy (and, frankly, most people who do not have a financial interest in a company selling fear-based curriculum, or blocking software/hardware) is advocating is an approach that takes a rational approach to a very real problem: learn about the risk, learn how to spot it, and learn how to avoid it.
Predators exist in malls, yet we (rightfully) go there.
Predators exist in churches, yet we (rightfully) go there.
There is no place that is fully, completely safe, yet we still all make our way out into the world regardless -- and we send our children, partners, loved ones out as well, because becoming crippled by fear benefits no one.
One large difference between the Internet and the Real World: search. The Internet lets us conduct searches that group all the mentions of the bad things. I wonder how a similar filter would work in any other public setting.
Cheers,
Bill
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I don't have time to engage in a discussion here. I know I'm not an expert, and I am speaking in vague generalities. But it seems to me that while I agree with Nancy in opposing this legislation, apparently I am doing so for different reasons. I think there are many things indeed to *fear* online--predators don't even begin to cover it--and that parents, above all, have to guide their children in how they use the Internet. But especially in these cash-strapped times, I don't think it's the place of a federal government to "raise awareness" and prescribe solutions for what virtually all parents and teachers--and for that matter, no doubt many kids--already know very well.
--Larry
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