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(from the 4/20/01 issue of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter)
The basic message for parents in Winn Schwartau's new book, "Internet & Computer Ethics for Kids (and Parents & Teachers Who Haven't Got a Clue)," wasn't even written by Winn. It's found in the words of former hacker Chris Goggans (now CTO of an Internet security company and probably a protege of Winn's), in the foreward to Winn's book. Here it is: "It is unfortunate, but if a [hacker] does not have an 'inner voice' telling him or her the difference between right and wrong, [s/he] may be a lost cause. That kind of compelling inner voice can really only develop through consistent family interaction. I was lucky that my mother took an interest in what I was doing, and let me know exactly how she felt about it."
Chris is talking about serious hackers (we use "hackers" as a neutral term) because he's telling his own story. But no child who uses the Internet, hacker or not, should be online without some training in ethics. The training doesn't have to be in a media lab or computer class (though that wouldn't hurt!); ideally, it's in family, or class, discussions and life lessons that have nothing to do with computers. In fact, it just could be that the Internet will enliven ethics discussion everywhere (do we hear cheers?!).
To be fair, Winn himself has a basic message for parents, too - an extremely basic message - in his book's one chapter for us (Chapter 40): "You're the parent. Act like one." He can say that because he's a parent, too (as well as a well-known computer security expert and author of/contributor to more than a dozen books on the subject; this is his first book for kids).
In fact, what really got the book off the ground, he told us in an interview, was when his 9-year-old son hacked into the neighbors' computer last summer. Winn said, "I told him, 'Adam, I don't know how many laws you've broken, here. I've got to call the FBI.' He was terrified. So I told him, 'Maybe there's a way around it [calling the FBI]. I want you to go to the neighbors, tell them what you did and show them how to secure their computer.' " Winn confirmed our suspicion that this experience gave 9-year-old Adam quite a leg up in the area of tech ethics. "Fifty to eighty percent of the problem is not technical…. It's people. A lot of this is about social things and behavior, not technology," Winn added.
Anyway, even if for no other reason than its timeliness, "Internet & Computer Ethics for Kids" is a super new online-safety tool. But there are other reasons:
The self-published book (because "Internet speed is very different from publisher speed," Winn told us) can be purchased at Amazon.com and, soon, at its companion Web site: NiceKids.net. There, Winn will soon be opening an online "CyberEthics University," with K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12 "courseware" that he says is being designed for the classroom by educators. He adds that it will be priced very reasonably. These ethics courses are "to be incorporated right into English, math, research, and day-to-day behavior" (this is good: while we're integrating tech into the curriculum, let's integrate ethics, too!). There will also be a course for parents, too, on Net ethics as well as how to protect home PCs from "hackers, vandals, and malicious software." [For a great start, see "Protection From Prying Predators", a piece by SafeKids.com's Larry Magid for the Los Angeles Times on firewalls and other ways to protect a family's high-speed connection to the Net.]
- It's designed for kids (5th-8th-grade level), so parents and teachers might even understand it too! (Visually, it's colorful and cartoonish - more attractive, less confusing than the "Internet [etc.] for Dummies" books.)
- It explains - at last - all those terms that hackers use fluently and that make most adults go cross-eyed, e.g., script kiddies, phreaking, war dialing, as well as all the terms we all want to know more about: e.g., online scams, viruses, spam, plagiarism, stalking, etc.
- It clearly states the difference between what is/isn't ethical and what is/isn't legal.
- It's ethically neutral. "It's not up to me to tell your kids how to behave," Winn told us.
- It provides URLs to further resources on the Web that are very useful (parents, note that some are controversial).
Parents and teachers, if you find any of this material useful or if you've been down this road a ways with your kids, do email us your comments and experiences! You know the address: feedback@netfamilynews.org.
More on Net ethics & Netiquette
A recent survey conducted for MSN found "some shocking lapses of etiquette" in emails sent by people under 25, reports the BBC, adding that "most have no conception of what counts as proper manners when penning a digital missive."
Here's ZDNet on general "power rudeness" or "geeks behaving badly" - the previously unimagined bad manners to which technology has given rise.
"From Teen Hackers to Job Hunters", an interesting Washtech.com piece on an "almost mythical" hacker organization's good influence on young hackers.
TurnItIn.com - an interesting service that helps teachers detect plagiarism in students' papers. "This Web-based tool analyzes written assignments against its database of hundreds of thousands of papers, as well as general Web content," the service says.
A work in progress is the "Responsible Netizen" project by the Center for Responsible Use of Information Technologies at the University of Oregon. The site links to a number of academic papers and presentations on the ethical issues involved in Internet use in K-12 schools (including sample acceptable-use policies). A book is forthcoming; we'll tell you about it late this summer.
On/for character education in general:
"Parents, politicians mull teaching right, wrong" - a recent CNNfyi piece on the state of character education.
CharacterCounts.org - "a nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition of schools, communities and nonprofit organizations working to advance character education by teaching the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship."
TeachingValues.com - another nonsectarian resource for parents and educators (e.g., see the "Universality of the Golden Rule" page). Some of the products and services are free (newsletter, book recommendations, sample story + activities), some may be purchased (parent coaching services, books, stories.
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