Brace yourselves, people. "Trust" is coming to a theater near you. As the first comment under the trailer in YouTube put it, "To Catch a Predator The Movie?" I've only seen the trailer of David Schwimmer's film, but I've been watching the blogosphere about it since last fall, frankly in a little bit of denial, because it worries me greatly. I didn't even want to draw to it the teeny bit of … [Read more...] about A film I *hope* won’t have much impact
Risk & Safety
Helping Japan with our brains as well as hearts
It's important for us to point out to our children that millions of people are looking for ways to help survivors of Japan's earthquake-related disasters. This is the social norms approach that encourages everybody to take positive action. This is also an opportunity to teach media literacy, as we look at how people are helping via social-media tools and how they can be vulnerable in doing so – if … [Read more...] about Helping Japan with our brains as well as hearts
1st look at Facebook’s ‘social [abuse] reporting’
On the social Web, where content is not just communication but behavior as well, safety is a shared experience. A single user can't guarantee it, no matter how optimized his privacy settings and practices are, nor can a site – not when people can tag, copy, forward, and instantly mass-distribute photos of and info about each other. That's why education about civility, citizenship, and safety … [Read more...] about 1st look at Facebook’s ‘social [abuse] reporting’
Takeaways from the bullying-prevention summit
It's highly likely that prevention of online and offline bullying took a major leap forward in the US today, thanks to the bright spotlight a White House event trained on this issue: the Bullying Prevention Summit. But even more important than massive awareness raising is the basing of all that attention on substantive, research-based messaging. It is truly heartening to watch a President, First … [Read more...] about Takeaways from the bullying-prevention summit
‘The No-Blame Approach’ to defusing bullying
Dateline NBC hit some key points about bullies and bystanders while skimming along the surface in "My Kid Would Never Bully." The show set up two pretty stereotypical scenarios (one involving boys in a gym and the other girls discussing fashion), hired two actors for each (one playing the bully and the other the victim), brought in 3-4 "real kids" who were the bystanders, and had parents and … [Read more...] about ‘The No-Blame Approach’ to defusing bullying