{"id":652282,"date":"2013-04-11T16:05:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T20:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blandinonbroadband.org\/?p=8468"},"modified":"2013-04-11T16:05:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T20:05:24","slug":"technology-and-teens-and-bad-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/652282","title":{"rendered":"Technology and Teens and Bad Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"phone\"<\/a>Here\u2019s an idea that makes a even the biggest broadband advocate in the world question the role of technology in the world of teens. According to the Washington Post<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

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The photo-sharing site Instagram<\/a> has become wildly popular as a way to trade pictures of pets and friends. But a new trend on the site is making parents cringe: beauty pageants, in which thousands of young girls \u2014 many appearing no older than 12 or 13 \u2014 submit photographs of themselves for others to judge.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As the parent of three girls, I\u2019m more than cringing! Especially since the article continues\u2026<\/p>\n

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Although users can keep their Instagram accounts private or use pseudonyms, they can expose themselves to the public once they share their photos with others.<\/p>\n

The girls in the beauty contests often did not take care to keep their identities and locations private. Some dressed in shirts embroidered with their schools\u2019 names, others provided a link to their Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr accounts containing information about who they are and where they live.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I have full access to my grade-school kids\u2019 Facebook accounts, so I see the pictures that their friends post online. Let\u2019s just say that some seem to forget that old adage \u2013 don\u2019t post anything online you wouldn\u2019t want your grandma to see. I can only imagine what\u2019s on the Instagram contests.<\/p>\n

A similar tool is SnapChat; I wrote about SnapChat on a different blog.<\/a>\u00a0It\u2019s an app that allows you to take a picture and send it to a friend with the idea that it shows up only for a few seconds. I found an interesting article from The DePaulia\u00a0(school newspaper from DePaul) that talks about why the author uses SnapChat and why she admits it\u2019s \u201cPossibly our generation\u2019s self-destructive addiction<\/a>.\u201d The author alludes to the very dark side of SnapChat\u2026<\/p>\n

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Anna Brenoff\u00a0of The Huffington Post wrote, \u201cCertainly, it is the perfect tool for sexting. You get to show off your privates and there\u2019s no evidence left for extortion later. It also means that your Mom, who is doing her best to police what you do online, doesn\u2019t get to see what you send your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although she also seems to dismiss the impact\u2026<\/p>\n

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Internet privacy is a common topic, and I believe more teens know how to deal with it than in the past. Snapchat is for friends, not enemies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately she seems to have forgotten that for a teen, today\u2019s friend may be tomorrow\u2019s enemy. And that for teens alliance to your besties may\u00a0be stronger\u00a0the deep-roots of teen romance. (Hacks for saving the temporary pictures<\/a> are not difficult.)<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s a concerned grown up to do?<\/p>\n

The Washington Post article alludes to recent steps taken at the federal level to improve online security for kids \u2013 but they also admit it\u2019s not enough\u2026<\/p>\n

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In December, federal officials strengthened privacy rules<\/a> for children. But analysts say regulators are not keeping abreast of new technological trends that present fresh questions about the safety of children on the Internet.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Threat of legal action has also been an effective tactic. I\u2019ve heard of stories in Minnesota involving inappropriate SnapChat\u00a0pictures have benched a few athletes \u2013 both the original SnapChat\u00a0sender, the recipient quick enough to do a screen save and the recipients of those captured pictures.\u00a0 And the results were minimized considerably because the original SnapChatter\u00a0was over 18. According to Mashable, students in New Jersey may be looking at more serious consequences.<\/p>\n

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Students at one New Jersey high school could face child pornography charges if found in possession of nude photos of classmates.<\/p>\n

Explicit images sent via Snapchat<\/a> prompted a police investigation after two freshman girls shared pictures on the controversial app and later found them posted on Instagram<\/a>. The Ridgewood High School students sent photos to at least one male classmate who took screenshots in order to save them to a gallery.<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a>\u00a0to parents on Wednesday, Superintendent Daniel Fishbein\u00a0said school officials were working in conjunction with local police to educate the community about “legal and psychosocial implications of this activity.” Fishbein shared the letter with students in sixth through twelfth grade to address the app’s popular use among middle schoolers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think the key in the following example is education. Education in the community, with parents and with students. I\u2019m amazed at how many fellow parents are not aware of what their kids are doing online \u2013 and fearful of how much I don\u2019t know. (At least I know that nothing makes technology less cool than your mom using it!) For parents and teachers, the roadblock is often keeping up on technology. Common Sense Media<\/a> is a helpful source to try to keep up on what\u2019s happening and how you can parent to support better use of technology. Earlier today I wrote about TechTECs<\/a>, an organization that provides training to communities on topics such as online privacy.<\/p>\n

Talking about it at the community level helps too. Bringing it up at broadband meetings and PTA events. Finding ways to get adults connected with what\u2019s happening and helping both adults and teens get the tools they need to navigate through digital opportunities. I wouldn\u2019t trade the safety of being offline for the new worlds my kids enjoy online \u2013 but I\u2019m interested in mitigating risks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an idea that makes a even the biggest broadband advocate in the world question the role of technology in the world of teens. According to the Washington Post\u2026 The photo-sharing site Instagram has become wildly popular as a way to trade pictures of pets and friends. But a new trend on the site is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}