A look at what does and doesn't work in risk prevention from top researchers in the US By Anne Collier It being "National Internet Safety Month" and this being the last week of the month, let's look at Net safety from a different angle…. "Grumpy researcher has doubts about Internet safety programs." David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the … [Read more...] about What’s wrong with Net-safety ed … and what we can do about it
Risk & Safety
What Net safety can learn from digital game design
Internet-safety experts should talk with game designers. Last week was for me a three-day-long, powerful confirmation that we need to de-silo the public discussion about young people's well-being online and offline. I attended the GLS (for Games+Learning+Society) conference at the University of Wisconsin and absorbed a lot of wisdom about learning in digital games and worlds. One key lesson … [Read more...] about What Net safety can learn from digital game design
Bullying: Reasons why kids don’t tell their parents
A lot of adults wonder why kids don't often tell a parent or "trusted adult" they're experiencing bullying, and what Aaron Cheese, 15, told his mom, finally, after years of dealing with it in silence, probably strikes a chord with a lot of young people: "He said it was that he didn't want to bring that home. Like, he wanted to walk in the door and just be a normal, regular kid," his mother, Jean … [Read more...] about Bullying: Reasons why kids don’t tell their parents
WHAT has ‘online safety’ wrought (with parents)?!
Thankfully, the youth part of "Talking to Youth and Parents about Life Online" had a whole lot of good news in it, because my heart sank when I read this first paragraph on parents' views of online kids in this study from Canada's premier digital and media literacy organization: "The parents we spoke with were beleaguered by fear of danger and exhausted from the burden of constant vigilance. … [Read more...] about WHAT has ‘online safety’ wrought (with parents)?!
Helping kids who encounter porn: ‘The Talk’ x3
It's no longer just two talks that parents need to have with their kids, the New York Times suggests – "the early lesson about the 'birds and the bees' and the more delicate discussion of how to navigate a healthy sexual life as a young adult" – but now also "the [online] pornography talk." It's a great piece that quotes top sources on the subject, almost echoing one by my ConnectSafely … [Read more...] about Helping kids who encounter porn: ‘The Talk’ x3