Yesterday’s post (And a Picture, Too), about the high school senior whose name and picture were included in her Charlotte Observer review of the movie, Fracture, generated a lot of conversation — especially for a Sunday. The responses sat pretty much on opposite ends of the issue’s spectrum, initially reporting dismay at the news paper
…readers now have the girl’s name, face, area of residence, approximate age, and school district.
Also expressed, was dismay at all of the hysteria,
It seems to me that the raising of concern about publishing a name and a photo reveals not only a certain sense of unjustified paranoia, but also a real misdirection regarding the source of potential danger.
Given that this misdirection is so evident, one wonders why it would be perpetuated.
Safety is certainly a concern, but what truly concerns me is our desire to be afraid. Where does that come from? Why do news sources and politicians get so much mileage out of fear and death.
I saw it again in this month’s EdTech, a CDW-G sponsored magazine, that is actually quite a good publication. But this month, the cover offers in bold print Cyber Predators, and features an elementary school child, sitting on a raft, using a laptop computer, being circled by sharks. Fear & Death!
The story reports on two gruesome cases of girls who were murdered. One met her killer in a chat room, and the other was reported to be active in MySpace. These stories were directly followed by the sentence…
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, one in five children ages 10 to 17 has received unwanted sexual solicitations online.
Although cause for concern, the Justice Department report is somewhat less shocking with it is read in its entirety. According to the same report, 16% of the solicitations came from females, 43% were younger than 18, 30% were between 18 and 25.
Again, this is a reason to be concerned and to teach safe practices when using the Internet — and it is quite a good article (Thwarting Cyber Predators) offering valuable tips. But the image of one in five teenagers being stalked by sexual predators is far from substantiated by the actual statistics. I look forward to every issue of EdTech and have written for the publication and will continue to if asked. And although I respect and like their editor, I do not respect their portrayal of the dangers of Internet usage.
It’s all about a system that is floundering. We’re looking for solid places to pull ourselves to or to push off of. We’re looking for the new pavement on which we can get traction, and the best way, in my opinion is through these conversations.
What do you think?
Image Citation:
Babick, Betty. “Safety?.” Betty Babick’s Photostream. 28 Apr 2007. 30 Apr 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/bettybabick/475834261/>.
When you said, “This confuses me about seven different ways” I didn’t realize why it confused you. I don’t think it is that big of a deal that they printed her name and picture. When you think about it, if they did give her a choice, she probably wanted to have her name and picture there. If she is interested in going into journalism or a related field, proving that you have been published is a huge deal-maker for scholarships. As an English major, I missed out on a lot of spectacular opportunities because I had never been published in high school. This is a great thing for her. She can add an excellent article to her portfolio.
It seems that you are lamenting the fact that the media inspires “Fear and Death!” but I don’t see why you are pouncing on them when you are guilty of the same by posting these two posts. These are issues that are important to talk about, but I would be willing to bet that the girl is excited that her name was published and the odds of something good happening to her instead of something bad are much greater.
I agree with you Jethro. I use to wait by the offices of the local paper, waiting for the weekly issues to come out, to see if some (uncharacteristically) spectacular catch that I’d made on the baseball field was reported … with my name … and perhaps even a picture.
Maybe I wasn’t clear, but my position is, that although there are safety issues, they are not nearly as great as many others, which we just take for granted. As Stephen Downes indicated, statistics indicate that children have more to fear from family members and acquaintances than the do from predators on the Internet.
While I certainly agree that schools need to teach young people how to look after themselves – they actually pose a much greater danger to each other. If I had to choose, I would spend far more time working with them on issues of cyber-bullying among their peers than predation from adults.
It’s kind of like travel…many have this fear of flying and would do anything to keep their wheels on the ground, even though the stats show that flying is far safer. It’s just that plane crashes tend to be far more sensational…we face far more danger in our car on the way to work.
Same with this issue…while the issue of adult predators is important, cyber-bullying offers far more potential for harm to a greater number of young people.
David,
Recognizing high school students for their achievements has a long history in towns all over the US. One local TV station features an athlete of the week and an outstanding student of the week. These are usually 3 minute interview with the students. As a teacher I agree with you, we should not ignore the challenges of new technologies, but children are abused in small and big ways everyday by the people who are supposed to be protecting them.
“According to the U.S. Department of Justice, one in five children ages 10 to 17 has received unwanted sexual solicitations online.”
I’d be interested to know their definition of “unwanted sexual solicitations”. If it’s what I suspect, I would say one in five is better than what happens in most school yards and malls.
Fact: As many as one in seven boys, and one in four girls will be sexually molested before the age of 18.
Fact: About 80% of the perpetrators are known by the child and/or the parents.
http://www.child-abuse-prevention.org/handbook_parents.shtml
Why is the traditional media (I’d have to put online news sites in this category) all over “new media” (social networks, blogs, wikis, chats)? Is it protectionism? Is it their fear? Or is it just an easy way to generate “news” and sales by feeding off the fears of the uninformed and misled.
Mirroring these fears, I see a sad trend in a growing number of educator blogs and podcasts revealing that schools are banning access to “new media”; thereby limiting “new literacy” skills. Do we teach kids how to cross the street safely or tell them to stay away from the traffic? Eventually they will need to venture forth into this big, wide world. Without street-smarts, they are going to be pretty easy targets.
Technology is the reality, not the issue. I would suggest that “news” focuses on the lack of community-centered, “new media” safety programs; not unlike our bicycle safety campaigns. Or are they banning bikes too?
I’m sure we all know that statistics can be misleading. I agree that after reading the entire report from the Department of Justice it is far less alarming than making a few select one sentence quotes, but we still cant ignore the fact there are still children out there that are contacted by sexual predators. I agree with Jeff that it’s up to our schools and parents to teach young children the dangers of being online. Monitoring your children when their online is the only responsible thing to do and if your child is going online, it’s your responsibility to be aware of the dangers. I know there are sites out there like NetSmartz411.org that try and teach parents ways to keep their kids safer online. If more people are proactive at educating ways to be safer, I think (and hope) that internet predators will be less successful at meeting children in the future.
Dave,
Applying your logic, we are also over-reacting in the area of school safety and lockdown drills.
As a newcomer to the wonders of 21st century technology, I feel like Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz, when she stepped out of her Kansas farmhouse into a land of color and adventure. But there was danger there, too. Should Dorothy have stayed locked in her bedroom. Would the danger have sought her out where she sat cowering on her bed?Could she have survived without assistance and intervention?
How do we strike a balance?
I think that fear of the unknown is playing a big role here. I feel like I take a lot of risks with my students and the kinds of technology that I use in my classroom, but I always sit back and wait for the other shoe to drop….the parent that will fear their child blogging because it is unknown to them….the tech coordinator who will block the blog for for the sake of “safety”….the student who will go outside the boundaries of what we do in the classroom and see things that they should not see…..my own fears about opening up this whole world to them and hoping that they will use it wisely and be safe. Alot to think about- yet another huge responsibility as an educator. Still, the internal struggle with my own fear of the unknown is always eventually overcome by the need to let students see what’s out there. My most recent revelation about this is that they will eventually find it on their own, and explore what is there anyway, so why not introduce it and facilitate that learning in my classroom where we can discuss the issues of safety together? There is such a fine line between protecting and exposing….I think my line changes daily as I learn to deal with my own fears of the unknown.
vejraska,
I’m willing to take the “risk” for myself, but worry about when and how to take calculated risks with my students. Probably part of the problem is my own inexperience – but there are parents and administrators to answer to, also.
How much freedom do you, and others, have regarding changes in curriculum and introduction of instructional methods?
I am in a great place in my career right now, and it’s really not by chance. I came to my current school because my “tech mentor” was teaching here, and asked me to come. We have a great principal who is a visionary. We gained his trust as educators, we began to help “recruit” other techies, and now we have a pretty solid group of people who are serious about creating change, at least in our little corner of the world. My principal has the same fears, but we work together to weigh the benefits carefully and most of time he lets us go with what we think will best serve the students.
We (the tech nerds) have had a great impact on curriculum and instruction this year. We have created and shared resources for integrating technology in Comm Arts, and we are currently revising all of the school curriculum guides to include technology resources, online projects, webquests, streaming video resources, etc. These documents will “go live” on our school website beginning this summer, to allow for easier teacher access from home. We are also beginning to share this document with other schools in our area in hopes of generating conversation on how we might improve on the idea. We sometimes sit back and look at what we are doing and wonder what the impact will be really….how many teachers will really latch onto the basic tools we are putting out there and eventually take it to a higher level? Not sure, but we’ll keep doing it anyway and hope that we make a tiny ripple in the still water.
Would it be too hokie to quote FDR here? –“The only thing we have to fear is, fear itself.”
Completely agree with Jeff! Any cyber-bullying that has occurred in our school has been from students in the same class, not some ambiguous predators from the Internet. I don’ t think the discussion about bullying changes just because you’ve changed mediums. Does it? We don’t quit having recess because kids pick on each other during that time, do we? No new fear here!
I also agree with Amy–I learn daily from my students about changing and innovative technologies. Are the activities we do in our classrooms risky or are they proactive! So much of what we see and deal with on a daily basis is reactive. Are we teaching students to be proactive in a reactive world? The “Fear & Death” media tell us what has “already” occured. Students should be using the these tools to proactive creators, not first responders.
How easy is that???
From a non-US perspective I am always ‘amused’ by the sheer hype surrounding this type of media incident. Can we actually take a step back and think clearly here? People of all ages have always had their names, pictures and details printed in newspapers and now online. Like previous comments here, sometimes we enjoy the notoriety and sometimes it helps with our careers. Without having the time to sift through mountains of statistics my logical guess would be that most of them are biased and need to be put into context rather than quoted verbatim.
I like the comment from Paul above, “Do we teach kids how to cross the street safely or tell them to stay away from the traffic? Eventually they will need to venture forth into this big, wide world. Without street-smarts, they are going to be pretty easy targets.” We need to be teaching safety and responsibility online and offline and we need to share best-practice approach to dealing with the outside world rather than putting up walls (especially firewalls!) and pretending the outside world does not exist! and will not interact with us!