Kids Aren’t Stupid

I overheard a great conversation yesterday. Two girls were chatting behind me in the queue in the Post Office. From their discussion about school options and examinations, I’d say they were around 14 and 15 years old. Here’s part of the conversation, it really made me smile.

Kids know more than you thinkGirl #1: My mum doesn’t even know I’m on Facebook.

Girl #2: Oh gosh, you’re on Facebook too? So am I. My parents don’t know either; my mum doesn’t like the idea of me being on it.

Girl #1: I have to wait till my mum’s gone out shopping to use the computer. She hasn’t realised that I know the password.

Girl #2: It’s passworded?

Girl #1: Yeah, my dad put a password on it. It took me a while to work out what it was, but it wasn’t that hard: his name and date of birth.

Now, I’m probably wrong for thinking like this, but I find it very uplifting to be reminded that youngsters of today are just as rebellious as kids have always been. Also, it made me chuckle to think of these parents, blithely going about their business, secure in the (false) knowledge that they are several steps ahead of their kids.

So what can schools do about it?

It seems to me that as well as trying to keep youngsters informed about e-safety issues, schools could try to keep parents informed as well (and many do, of course). E-safety information should include such things as:

• Instead of passwording your computer, unless your children are very young, why not discuss safe usage, and trust your child?
• If you must set up a password system, don’t use one that is as obvious as your name + date of birth: if your daughter can guess it, sooner or later a total stranger will too.
• Instead of banning Facebook in your home, join it, and make sure you and your children are “friends” – although, of course, any teenage rebel worthy of the name will set up an alternative account. But at least it will you a chance, hopefully, of seeing how beneficial it can be.
• Encourage parents to look at Child Exploitation and Online Protection website, parents’ area. Instead of merely proclaiming doom and gloom, the site gives you practical ideas. All parents (and teachers?) should take the Parent Test to check how much they know and understand about such things, and for those who really don’t “get it”, suggest they watch the following video.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Cyber Safety Tips for Back to School (blogher.com)
• Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship Presentations for Students, Parents and Teachers (speedofcreativity.org) – Great list of issues from Wes Fryer, and a very good video about your digital dossier.
• Facebook adds a 'panic button' application to its website (canada.com)
• Youth Safety on a Living Internet (ictineducation.org)

The photograph is called Gossip Girls 1, and is (c) Sanja Gjenero.

Comments

[Robert Drummond]

I agree with the points you make Terry. In my opinion an adult banning something which a child's peers are having fun with is not going to work in the long term - I bet you never hear anyone in the post office saying 'I'd love to go on it but I'm not allowed!'
Educating people to use the tools of communication in a responsible manner is the answer and sharing sites like the one you link to clearly help.
It's a shame we only hear in the media about the negatives of facebook, twitter etc and how people use it for cyber-bullying. You never hear about the children who are being bullied at school who use online methods to discuss their problems with peers in similar situations nor about how children can use the CEOPS button to report online bulllying, thus beginning their fightback against their bullies.

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thanks, Robert, I so agree with you (we should start a mutual appreciation society!). "Educating people to use the tools of communication in a responsible manner is the answer " is exactly right, and was basically the thrust of the Byron Report (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/ukccis/userfiles/file/FinalReportBookmarked.pdf). I loved her analogy of the swimming pool: we don't ban kids from swimming, we teach them how to swim, have lifehuards and put warning notices up.
Cheers
Terry

[Roger Neilson]

Agree totally, the kids know what they need to know and find out from their peers. Kids have natural curiosity and will explore areas as they need to and according to their choices. Lovely moment at the end of last week's Casualty summed it up for me!
The problem is the parents who don't have the time, can't see the point, prefer to bury their heads in the sand. Most kids are 'savvy' enough to cope with what the internet can throw at them, but even if 1% are not that's a lot of kids at risk.
Got to be parents who are shown what this is all about - its a diminishing issue of course as younger parents are much more savvy - being the facebook generation!

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thx Roger. I agree with everything you say, but admire your optimism at the end: from what I've read in several sources, the most stupid people on the web when it comes to matters of e-safety are adults! Hopefully, as you suggest, there will be a growing number of tech-savvy people who can then pass on their wisdom to their children (who, of course, will ignore it!)

[Social Networking]

I could not agree more. We have three girls at home, two teenagers and one pre-teen. The two teens have their facebook account and we have password access to them. We set curfews and we regulate their activity. Luckily the tween has not shown much interest in it. She finds it to be a waste of time and funny enough, an invasion of privacy.