"Way back" in 2008 – at least a decade after "online safety" was starting to be seen as a subject that needed to be taught to children – I suggested that it was becoming obsolete. Now what I'm seeing is that it never really was a single stand-alone subject that could become obsolete. We'll look back on it as a risk-prevention placeholder that society created until our research-based understanding … [Read more...] about Challenging ‘Internet safety’ as a subject to be taught
danah boyd
Reflexive responses to digital bullying & self-harm not helpful
Readers, as new information has emerged in the UK's recent teen suicide case, I felt it might be useful to you if I gather together some insights, wisdom and context on "digital self-harm" from the past several years into one place. So here's Part 2 (Part 1 is here)…. If what Ask.fm executives reportedly said about the hate messages on Hannah Smith's page is true – and it's very likely to be – … [Read more...] about Reflexive responses to digital bullying & self-harm not helpful
Teens & social media: Parents’ other job
An interesting myth about social media is the one about tension between teen privacy and teen safety. Because of all the scary messaging about the Internet that has been in circulation for almost two decades, many parents seem to believe it's their job to monitor their children's Net use closely. The assumption is that privacy (from parents) jeopardizes their safety. That assumption deserves to … [Read more...] about Teens & social media: Parents’ other job
Law enforcement & social media now working together
This is a significant sign of progress: The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is working with Facebook on consumer privacy education. We're still only in the first half of this decade, and in the second half of the last one, the state attorneys general were threatening legal action against a social media service – MySpace, the most popular one of that time. Now NAAG is actually … [Read more...] about Law enforcement & social media now working together
So we’ve all ‘let our guard down’?
It's interesting that Daily Beast writer Caitlin Dixon precedes her question "When did we let our guard down?" with the story of sleeping on strangers' couch in Italy after finding them in a couch-surfing site. Yes, she let her guard down (but the people were great hosts). What's interesting, though, is that she compared couch-surfing to connecting with people online. One could argue – and I've … [Read more...] about So we’ve all ‘let our guard down’?