Parent Ed Night 'scare tactics' positioning

[Replies: 3]

Anne, we met at CyberSafety, I'm the Exec. Dir. of ShapingYouth.org, & a strong ally/proponent of your work (and Larry's) regarding media literacy for the online world.

This Parent Ed night of 'the dark side' of the internet has me frustrated as all get out. Could you post some rational verbiage, counter-arguments & stats for me to bring this eve? The law enforcement officer speaking tonight was just written up in the Chronicle here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/05/BUGV1NT4RG1.DTL

Last Post Apr 12, 2007 8:58 AM by: DrKris

DrKris

Posts: 7

From: Portland, OR

Registered: 7/27/06

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Re: Parent Ed Night 'scare tactics' positioning

Apr 12, 2007 8:58 AM

ShapingYouth:

Thanks for your account of your experience with fear based "educational" meetings on internet safety. I read about them all the time, of course, but it is interesting to hear your story.

An educator not knowing a vast array of resources is not a good sign.

I know this meeting has passed, but a rebuttal to this is that parents need to "protect" their children by providing them with the skills they need to succeed in the world -- virtual or not. To raise a child to be savvy, thoughtful, and prepared is one of the best things a parent can do, IMO. Because (and this may be a little fear-based sounding, so excuse me) it does no good to protect kids from these new technologies, as there are simply going to be more and more of them. And,the ones that are available are going to become more and more accessible (eg, the web on a cell phone -- you going to take away your teen's phone? I think not). So, instead of covering things up, it is better to make them more transparent so we can be more critical of their strengths and weaknesses. I took a peek at your blog and it sounds like that is something you are trying to do.

When my web presence gets revamped (in process) I want to link to your stuff!

Kris
www.virtualmysterytour.com

Shaping Youth

Posts: 16

From: San Mateo, Ca.

Registered: 2/8/07

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Re: Parent Ed Night 'scare tactics' positioning

Apr 8, 2007 11:44 PM

btw, Anne, never updated you on the outcome here...The officer gave quite an impressive 'real time' demo of 'baiting' and grooming...but of course, the media cynic in me knows that he's responding in ways that most kids wouldn't, as they're scared out of their shorts to do so(!) ---responses like the ones he 'modeled' are what fuel predator conversations. (hesitance, bewilderment, self-esteem issues, family probs/loneliness)

Still, it was impactful/impressive/poignant as you could literally hear the gasps in the audience of parents. From a counter-marketing standpoint, I learned a lot about the paranoia positioning...

Unfortunately, being a media maven, I know this hype-factor all too well...Not to discount or belittle it, for as you can see by my post to you on IMVU, I'm monitoring kids' behavior as well, but I feel the 'fed factor' (law enforcement particularly) is quite heavy handed when it comes to the "perception vs. reality" dichotomy (as the old Rolling Stone ad campaign would say!)---

I reviewed the officer's 'training tool' w/my daughter and it was elementary at best...(she gave it a big,
'duh!')

He'd also never heard of BlogSafety, SafeKids, Parry Aftab's crew, or My Space Unraveled which tipped me off right away...even though the media covered him extensively at SFGate/the Chron.

Your insightful dialogue here (and Larry's comments & updates) are light years ahead of where law enforcement is...not to mention school systems/PTAs etc. You're beginning the conversation on a whole different level.

Keep up the good work! Know that there's a huge parent posse in the centrist mode that is following you at Shaping Youth...including myself. Best, Amy

--
Using the power of media for positive change

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Edited by Shaping Youth at 04/08/2007 11:54 PM

Anne

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Registered: 6/26/06

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Re: Parent Ed Night 'scare tactics' positioning

Feb 8, 2007 12:34 PM

I remember meeting you at the "summit," Amy. Thanks for posting. I agree with Officer DeWarns that parents needs to feel as comfortable about being engaged in their kids' online lives as much as the offline/"real world" part, if for no other reason than that youth sees little distinction between the two. But I disagree with him that filtering is much of a solution. Yes, Microsoft's new Vista OS (the latest Windows upgrade) will be a better-than-ever solution among tech parental controls (best if bought pre-installed on a new computer). But filtering is really more a little-kid solution, or a solution that might work fairly well on a family PC if kids only have access to that one PC. But that's the situation in fewer and fewer kids' lives - there are so many workarounds they know or can easily find, proliferating access points, and a growing number of very mobile devices with which to access the Net.

We're only just beginning to get the results of solid research to guide the online-safety field and to check our assumptions. For example, it was little-publicized this week, but the Crimes Against Children Research Center (CACRC) at the U. of NH just released a study that found that giving out personal info is not as risky as everybody's been advising. What puts kids at risk is "making a lot of online acquaintances and talking with them about sex," the authors found.

What we all - parents, educators, advocates, law enforcement - need to be thinking about more in these days of the youth-driven social Web is how to enlist kids themselves in the job of protecting them, in effect, from themselves and each other as much as from the porn and predators we've all been trying to block since Web 1.0, the more static, encyclopedia-like, top-down Web "of yore." I just received from a parent a list of young people's pages on a social site which she says are pornographic. Whatever porn that's on those pages didn't come from the porn operators we've heard about needing to block for years, but from kids. Certainly these are a fraction of the teen-created pages on the social Web - the vast majority are at least constructive, and many are creative and really interesting. Research is emerging on that front too, funded by the MacArthur Foundation to the tune of $50 million (see ).

That's probably enough here! Email us via admin@blogsafety.com if you need more. All best,
Anne
--
Anne Collier
BlogSafety co-director

Shaping Youth

Posts: 16

From: San Mateo, Ca.

Registered: 2/8/07

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