21apples

MySpace Sued By 4 Families Of Abused Children

Posted by arvind s grover Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:04:09 GMT

Four families with young daughters who were abused, molested or raped by someone they met on MySpace have filed suits against News Corporation (who owns MySpace). These are tragic examples of the real dangers that online communication tools can facilitate. Having had hours of discussions with parents, students, administrators and colleagues about the dangers of social networking sites, these stories make the dangers startlingly real.

Trying to think about this in a balanced way, I wonder how fair it is to hold MySpace responsible for these young women meeting these awful men. Yes, they used MySpace. But didn’t they also use computers, web browsers, phones, cars, the subway, public places like restaurants, parks and more to meet? Are they all to blame? Is this the same as overweight people suing McDonald’s? It is very difficult to understand who is at fault here. Who is liable? In the end does it actually matter, these girls have already suffered, and there is no recovery. On a forum on Slashdot someone suggested the parents be charged with negligence. Is there really anyone to blame other than the criminals?

Most often I tell families that the dangers are real. They must deal with that. It is however much more rare than one might realize. The overwhelming majority of perpetrators of sexual violence against children are victims’ parents. Read this great article highlighting the data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It’s also important to note that 79% of reported online abuse occurred at home.

The conclusion of the article really summed it up well,

The question is, “Are we going to take a “zero risk” approach to using technology and the tools of the Web?”

We don’t take a “zero risk” approach with our sports programs where the chance of injury, paralysis, and, in rare cases, death, is always present. We don’t take that approach with field trips where students travel to museums and historical sites in locations where they might be touched by crime. We don’t take that approach with recess on our playgrounds, or transporting our kids to and from school.

We can never eliminate all risk; but there are ways to maximize our students’ safety while using these incredibly powerful tools. Each tool needs to be analyzed individually to ascertain its benefits and the specific risks it might present. From there, thoughtful people can find solutions to the student safety issues that may arise.

As educational leaders we need to be safety conscious. We need to be prudent, reasonable; but we won’t live in fear and we won’t act from fear.

It is by opening doors, not closing them that we create new possibilities for our children and new futures for ourselves.

Would love to hear your thoughts, and how your school or home is responding to the sensational media coverage.

p.s. In other conspiracy theories, doesn’t network television have a vested interest in having parents be afraid of the Internet? It keeps the kids watching TV instead of YouTube when the parents take away the computer. I know that one is way out there, but had to toss it in the mix.

Technorati Tags: article, MySpace, net generation, news, NYCIST, online, parents, safety, social networking, students

Posted in net generation, news, safety | 6 comments | no trackbacks

Programmer Uses MySpace To Bust Child Molesters

Posted by arvind s grover Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:43:01 GMT

A benevolent programmer at Wired Magazine used his skills to create a script that crawled through the MySpace user directory looking for registered sex offenders who are using the site. Guess what he found? Over 744 sex offenders, over 400 of which were registered child sex offenders using their real names on MySpace. His search technique was only good enough to locate people using their real names who identified their zip code within 5 miles of their real address. They could have beat his system by using a fake name, fake picture or fake zip code. Not very hard to do.

There is real danger with these sites. Criminals are using these sites for their own malevolent purposes. In the article, the author argues that MySpace is still a good thing for kids, but warns:

It’s all up to MySpace. We can’t count on parental supervision; howmany teenagers looking for a space to hang out in with friends will accept one occupied by parents? We can’t count on peer policing; nobody reported Lubrano for his inappropriate comments.

We definitely can’t count on teenage street-smarts. Swagger isn’t judgment. Young Jacob is a smart guy, but even after he politely rebuked Lubrano for hitting on him, he made plans to meet the man at a Pennsylvania amusement park.

His argument is one for technical solutions, perhaps influenced by his own “success” of finding predators electronically. However, there are much bigger questions to be answered here: what kind of men are we raising who could do things like this? What kind of situations are we exposing our children to if they are able to go meet strangers in real time? What kind of decision-making are we teaching if our children can’t understand these risks?

I am an educator and have always believed that education is the answer. However, just educating children on social-networking is not enough. We must also be educating on how the media portrays men and women, how our own biases impart patriarchal views of women and how all of this is contributing to the violent world to which they are constantly exposed.

Technorati Tags: article, children, education, educators, Internet, legal, MySpace, online, safety, school, schools, social networking, teaching, technology, youth

Posted in media, net generation, news, safety, teaching | 2 comments | 1 trackback

American Technology (and Education) Left in the Dust by South Korea?

Posted by arvind s grover Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:28:03 GMT

Norimitsu Onishi article in the New York Times about South Korea’s robotics efforts make American technology and educational technology seem somewhat archaic. (read the article soon, because the NY Times charges you after a week. Or bookmark it with ma.gnolia and they will save a copy for you)

Some factoids about South Korea from the article:

• this month they will introduce WiBro, the 10 megabit wireless Internet connection for your home (faster than your cable or DSL modem)
• first country in the world to to have high-speed Internet in every primary, junior and high school (the U.S. still doesn’t have that)
• you can watch TV on Korean cell phones (U.S. companies are starting to offer this now too)
• Microsoft and Motorola test new technologies in South Korea before the U.S.
• 17 of 48 million people in South Korea are members of CyWorld, a social-networking website (not just kids)
• 72% of South Korean households have high-speed Internet access (in the U.S. it is 58%, ranking 15th in the world)

CyWorld is so popular in South Korea that many politicians, celebrities and companies have formed profiles on that site rather than creating their own websites. CyWorld is similar to MySpace or Friendster in that you create your own profile, and then indicate who are your 1st circle friends. The rest of the space connects accordingly.

The article speaks to commitment. South Korea certainly doesn’t have more money or resources that the United States, but it is committed to using technology to improve the lives of its people. The national government offers information technology courses to homemakers and makes subsidized computers available to low-income families. That is commitment. Here in the U.S., the federal government decided to completely cut educational technology spending (read it yourself here), while standing by companies like Verizon who are trying to prevent cities like Philadelphia from giving away free wireless access. By 2010, they intend to put a networked robot in every home (the Jetson’s have finally arrived!).

From an education perspective, they are committed to giving their students access to 21st century tools so they can compete and thrive in a 21st century world. They realize that with broadband access, Internet-enabled phones and social-networking websites comes responsibility. To ensure their students know how to practice safely online, they created educational programs for all schools:

...in February, the government released a 256-page “IT Ethics” textbook for junior and high school students. Teachers are expected to spend 30 hours instructing from the textbook, whose chapters include “Healthy Mobile Phone Culture,” and “Protecting Personal Privacy.

The U.S. needs to take a long hard look at itself as it seems like we take an arrogant approach to things sometimes – feeling that we are the world hegemond simply because our military is the strongest. Let’s not confuse the issue. Just because we can beat everyone else up, doesn’t mean we are smarter. We need to make strategic choices to make sure that the citizens of the U.S. and the students of the U.S. are being provided what they need to excel. Right now, it seems like we have a long way to go.

p.s. I know the robot in the picture is Japanese, but I couldn’t find a good Korean robot photo that was not copywritten

Technorati Tags: education, FCC, future, Internet, New York Times, Norimitsu Onishi, Philadelphia, robot, robotics, safety, schools, South Korea, students, technology, Verizon, WiBro, wireless

Posted in safety, news, hardware, future | 2 comments | no trackbacks

In Your Facebook.com

Posted by arvind s grover Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:12:00 GMT

The New York Times has an article covering Facebook.com use on college campuses. In the article, a senior at George Washington University accuses campus police of snooping out his party by reading Facebook postings, and then showing up to bust the party. The students came up with a creative retaliation: post messages about a “beer blast” party all over Friendster. The police certainly showed up, and found a party with cakes and cookies all covered with the word beer, but no actual beer.

The article also pointed out that the University of New Mexico banned access to Facebook in October. This was startling to me. A university blocking access to a social-networking website? Universities are supposed to be places where students can explore the widest range of thoughts on literature, philosophy, science, mathematics, and yes, websites. It is one thing for a K-12 school to filter, but I can’t believe that higher education specialists came to that decision. The university apparently cited student safety as the rationale behind the decision.

As educators, we must realize that the only safety filtering gives us is personal safety. It provides a legal barrier at best, letting community members know that we do not facilitate student access to these websites. I don’t feel however, that it does anything to reduce use of these websites. The article shows that U. of New Mexico students simply found ways to work around the filters. Did the university actually protect student safety with its actions? Probably not. (note: U. of New Mexico plans to remove the filter next semester)

What can we do to protect student safety? We are educators, let’s use our most powerful tool: education. We must let student learn about the impact of their words, photos and actions. They are accountable, and will be forever. A comment left on Facebook is not the same as a comment passed in the hallway. Online commentary is here to stay forever. We must make this a reality for students, and then turn Facebook and the like into positive communities.

There were some tremendously powerful quotations from university educators. My favorites:

“It’s a fantastic tool for building community,” says Anita Farrington-Brathwaite, assistant dean for freshmen at New York University. “In a school like ours that doesn’t have an enclosed campus, it really gives people a way to find each other and connect.”

Harvard’s president, Lawrence H. Summers, gave kudos to Facebook in the opening lines of his address to freshmen in September, saying he had been browsing the site to get to know everyone. (This is certainly far ahead of where Mr. Summers last was spotted)

As part of freshman orientation at Rollins College in Florida, student coordinators will create Facebook groups for campus organizations like the Rollins Outdoor Club. “We cannot deny the impact of Facebook, but we believe that it’s the responsibility of the institution to find ways to create the most positive communities,” says Roger Casey, dean of faculty. “These communities can be positive or negative.”

“Facebook is part of an evolving dialogue,” he says. “One of the things that’s most fascinating about it is how it illuminates the changing nature of public and private identity. This is new ground on every level. What people in positions of power have to realize is that people my age have a completely different attitude about what is fair game.”—Mr. Stoneman of George Washington

Technorati Tags: article, college, education, net generation, university, web

Posted in culture, news, net generation, literacy, safety | no comments | no trackbacks

The MySpace Generation

Posted by arvind s grover Mon, 05 Dec 2005 00:26:00 GMT

Most educators are aware that students are deeply involved with social networking websites like Friendster, MySpace, Webshots, The Face Book, Xanga, Live Journal and others. Business Week has an article our this week called, “The MySpace Generation,” in which they try to explain what is happening with these sites and why.

One of the most shocking points in the article:

“Fifteen- to eighteen-year-olds average nearly 6 1/2 hours a day watching TV, playing video games, and surfing the Net, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey.”

Doing some rough mental math – the average student gets home around 3:30, meaning with a 30 minute break for dinner, they are done watching TV, playing video games and surfing the Net at 10:30. Then maybe a little homework till 11:30pm-midnight, then bed? And if you are a student who plays a sport and gets home at 7:00pm, well then all bets are off.

We all understand that we are in the middle of a big shift in adolescent behavior. In the coming years it will be essential for young people to gain the skills they need to manage their time. More important than multitasking, students will need to be able to turn off the IM/MySpace and struggle with a philosophy problem, or try to understand the mitigating factors of the cold war, or work through Gregor Mendel’s pea pod experiment. You cannot concentrate while watching TV, talking to 3 friends online, downloading music and reading your favorite blog while posting to your own. You will certainly give your brain exercise in keeping information in order, but deep-thought process never has the chance to begin.

There is certainly value in being able to multitask, most jobs demand it in some ways. But most also demand well thought out, creative, analytical processing as well.

In the end though, if students are willing to spend 6.5 hours engaging with this multimedia, educators have to find a way to carve into that time. My idea? My lessons need to be part of their online experience – they should be IM’ing with study partners, they should be watching videos of lab experiments, dowloading podcasts of lectures, creating a U.S. History blog. Empower students to use their tools for their own learning.

Open note to the MySpace creators – come out with MySpace School Edition and give me a call.

Posted in net generation, literacy, safety | 2 comments | no trackbacks

The Arms Race

Posted by arvind s grover Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:57:00 GMT

Social networking sites have sent schools around the country into a tizzy. People have been shocked to see the type of material being posted by students.

In response, many schools with well-thought-out policies on filtering, have started to block many of the sites in question. For some this is a liabilty decision, for others, school is a place for school-designated use of the web, and not much else.

Deeper look: filtering itself creates a new set of challenges. Students are drawn to these websites for reasons many adults can’t understand. Removing access to the sites becomes a small technical hurdle for many students. Their answer, using a web proxy to outsmart the filter, and they are back on their favorite social website. This is a battle that network technologists can’t win. They block more sites, and students find more workarounds; then it begins again.

I call this The Arms Race

Suddenly, the relationship between technologists and students has shifted from collaborative to combative. And in an education context, this is a huge hurdle.

We want students to come with us when they are concerned about online issues, not worried about hiding from us. Yes, of course we think it is a bad idea to post pictures of yourself in your underwear. Yes, it is an awful idea for a 14 year old to post information about where s/he lives. And yes, we still want to know why they do it and how we can all come to an agreement on what would be a more constructive use of these sites.

p.s. a colleague of mine first used the words “the arms race,” but I am trying to expand the context for it

Posted in safety, law, net generation | 2 comments | no trackbacks