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‘Kids being raised in captivity’: UK’s Byron

March 23, 2009 By Anne Leave a Comment

This may sound about right on this side of the Atlantic too: UK clinical psychologist Tanya Byron – prime minister-appointed author of the 2008 Byron Review of child safety on the Web and in videogames – told an audience that their risk-averse society was keeping children cooped up at home on a “global playground” called the Internet, where they can be at greater risk than if allowed out more, The Telegraph reports. Speaking at the annual gathering of Britain’s Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, “the industry body that regulates sexual content in publications for young people,” Byron suggested that adults need not only to understand the potential risks but the nature of the playground itself, how – if parts of it have curfews or are deemed off-limits to youth – they can simply move on to more risky areas. “Professor Byron said that many adults had responded to her review by suggesting that the Internet should be shut down completely, or that a ‘watershed’ must be imposed so that children cannot access it after 9pm – showing their failure to understand it…. Instead, she said parents and teachers … should learn more about what young people are doing online.” [For related links, here’s video of her speaking – as a parent, psychologist, and researcher – at the Oxford Internet Institute, “Beyond Byron: Towards a New Culture of Responsibility” (I found it fascinating to hear her talk about her Byron Review development process, working through all the various perspectives); coverage in The Guardian of another talk, at a conference held by UK regulator Ofcom, where Byron cautioned against overregulating the Internet; and the Byron Review’s own Web site and my coverage upon its release.]

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Filed Under: international online safety, Parenting, Risk & Safety Tagged With: Byron Review, Tanya Byron

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IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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