There was good news and bad news in a story coming out of Pennsylvania last week, and the good news is a clear sign of progress. The bad news happened first: As part of Pennsylvania's attorney general's "Operation Safe Surf" program, 4th and 5th graders at Merion Elementary School, about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia, were "warned of serial killers, sex offenders and Al-Qaida," WPVI-TV … [Read more...] about AG’s office apologizes for a school Net safety preso
predators
Virginia school officials, pls get this right!
Read the lede anecdote of this Washington Post story and tell me if you think Kimiya's 11th-grade English teacher didn't come up with a brilliant solution to help her. Using Twitter. And yet the Virginia Board of Education apparently thinks that the use of social media in school assignments could be the slippery slope that leads to more teachers becoming sexual predators. "The push for new … [Read more...] about Virginia school officials, pls get this right!
Youth online risk: Accurate reporting
It's always refreshing to see solid reporting where online kids and parenting are concerned! The main takeaway from this Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune article is that, yes, social media represent a new challenge for parents, but we can usually handle it just fine and here's how. It tells of how a local couple with six children of ages ranging from 6 to 19 – all but the youngest of whom "have a cell … [Read more...] about Youth online risk: Accurate reporting
How to recognize grooming
Sometimes the very reason kids and teens blog and spend time in social-networking sites is to “meet new friends.” So it’s not always easy for them to tell when “new friends” have bad intentions, and research consistently shows that about 20% of online kids receive unwanted sexual solicitations (see “Other resources” below). “Grooming” is the way sexual predators get from bad intentions to … [Read more...] about How to recognize grooming