This week I spent two days working with girls at an Australian school, working through issues relating to internet safety.
It is interesting to see how many students under 14 have social networking sites. About 95% with 100% using MSN messenger (windows live).
Myspace is still the most popular social networking site, followed by Bebo, however Facebook is challenging both sites when it comes to senior classes.
It is always interesting to finish my presentations and ask for questions. This week and all other weeks are met with similar responses. To begin, no one wants to ask a question, but eventually one student does. This is like opening the floodgates, and hands pop up from everywhere. The students have genuine concerns and often want to share an event that has happened to them online.
There is always someone who has a bad experience and wants to share it with others, while some students are unsure if they are being deceived and want further clarification. Often they ask, do you think this is risky, should I worry about this person I am talking to, who should I report an issue to. I usually have 1 out of every 100 students come up and ask for advice as they now recognise that someone they chat to is quite possibly an adult and they have given out all their personal information.
I have found children very good at protecting themselves online, however the hard part is to make the concerns real so that children put in place safe practices. Once children are aware and its real, they make very sensible decisions.
Let’s hope that students can educate each other within their own networks as they have the ability to reach out to far more than adults can reach.
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