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Youth online risk: Accurate reporting

September 2, 2010 By Anne 3 Comments

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 phone with Internet access” – feel they can deal with most of it but can always ask their eldest to explain anything they don’t understand.” The only thing the dad and the reporter aren’t too clear on was what happened in the Megan Meier case (see this blog post of mine). But the advice from an expert the reporter interviewed – Sue Dowling of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation – is top-notch, and I hope parents will read it all. For example, though she certainly understands parental fears of online predators, she cites academic research showing that the risk is very low to most kids, those who don’t actively engage in risky online behavior such as talking about sex with strangers in a variety of places online or exhibit other known risk factors in their offline lives (see this Fact Sheet from the Crimes Against Children Research Center (CCRC) at the University of New Hampshire). We learned in our work on the Internet Safety Technical Task Force that not all young people are equally at risk of sexual exploitation, those who are most at risk online are those most at risk offline, and a child’s psychosocial makeup and home and school environment are better predictors of risk than any technology he or she uses.

The school environment part is huge – that and how its members treat each other is the biggest predictor of the online risk that affects the most kids: cyberbullying. But they’re just as much predictors of young people’s wellbeing offline; they can hardly be separated, which is why behavior, not technology, is the main issue. Stay tuned for more next week….

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Filed Under: bullying, cyberbullying, predators, Risk & Safety, Social Media Tagged With: Crimes Against Children Research Center, cyberbullying, Lori Drew, Megan Meier, predators, Sue Dowling, youth risk online

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John says

    September 3, 2010 at 7:00 am

    This is true, I believe that in the end what still affects a person attitide or behaviour is how he/she was brought up in the first place. This dates back to when a person is younger (toddler years to late adolescent stages) the environment and people who a person interacts matters so much to what a person believes in or accepts to be good or bad, acceptable or rejectable event, situation or attitude of another person. I’ve been immersed into online day-to-day activities for quite awhile now and what only affects me as a real person are the things that I believe to be good or appropriate despite everything that I see and witness over the net. I think it still is dependent on that person’s level of maturity and socialization online or offline alike. Nice post Miss Anne, I’m definitely liking your posts each time I visit your website.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Online Privacy: Parents Worry Advertisers Know Too Much | MindShift says:
    December 28, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    […] in a variety of places online or exhibit other known risk factors in their offline lives,” wrote Ann Collier, editor of NetFamilyNews, in a recap of useful advice on how to prevent risk to youth online. If […]

    Reply
  2. Tweets that mention Youth online risk: Accurate reporting | NetFamilyNews.org -- Topsy.com says:
    September 2, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Marjie Knudsen, school_climate. school_climate said: Youth online risk – School environment matters | http://t.co/thVnD39 via @AnneCollier […]

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Anne Collier


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2016 TEDx Talk on
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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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