Cautionary tales

Cautionary tales

by Tia Carr Williams -
Number of replies: 1

I wanted to commence this week with two cautionary tales from my daily newspaper which highlights the plight of young people using the net for social purposes. Whilst these stories are not unique, they indicate the tip of a growing iceberg. I wonder how many other stories are happening today just like them and how the guardians of young people can act to limit the opportunity for such tragic outcomes:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=494809&in_page_id=1811

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=494906&in_page_id=1770

These incidences should bring home to us the necessity of configuring very clear guidelines of internet engagement. It's not a 'free for all' and is clearly a highly dangerous opportunity that permits strangers direct access to the young and vulnerable. Just as Teen Second Life has a very stringent policy that gatekeeps that environment, we are duty bound to inform and guide activity on the web.

In reply to Tia Carr Williams

Re: Cautionary tales

by Deirdre Bonnycastle -
Horrendous bullying is alive and well at every level of education. I pulled my 12-year-old daughter out of the school system because she was experiencing threats and humiliation that the school was unwilling to act on. Even today at 20, there are areas in the neighbourhood that she feels uncomfortable in because of what occurred there. As an adult, I was harassed by a vampire want-to-be on Ning to the point where I had him removed from Ning.

Teachers can be proactive with this issue by
  1. acknowledging bullying exists
  2. co-creating enforceable rules of engagement
  3. using classroom tools:
  • that allow teacher/student moderation of comments
  • that have a real administration who can track down and remove cyber bullies.
Long ago, I worked with street kids in a storefront school and one of the first things we did was ask the kids to setup class rules of behaviour. I never had serious problems with these kids because they felt safe in my class and they monitored each other.