Nothing new to many of us in IT, but to all of our friends not in IT, this may be an issue.
Ever wonder what you son or daughter is doing on their computer every day? Or their smart phone, iPhones or Blackberry(yes, high school students have BBs) or iPads or ipods?
According to some you should be very afraid. VERY AFRAID of what your kids and/or their friends are seeing, using or telling others about.
Not going to argue 1st amendment rights or however you view it or the "kids will be kids" line or "we did similar things".
I want to enlist all of your help to provide some insight to what works for you and your family, NOT your office.
How do we prevent it or support it in a way that helps our kids mature at an appropriate speed?
It's similar to how to prevent your kids from having sex, smoking...anything, drugs, reading racist or hate sites or whatever is your item that kids shouldn't be involved, but how does one do it?
Our kids school offers a class to the kids, at various age appropriate over the span of a few days and instills in them some good and bad views of the Internet and people/life in general. Yes, I live in Florida and we have some issues, all the more reason why I ask you all, from wherever you are, for your insights.
Education is not enough. There are many software vendors with tools, but those will not work on mobile devices. There are trust issues between you and your kids, there is the possibility you will create more curiosity within your child to seek this information out or you may create a puritanical, religious zealot.
As we go forward into a social future and a younger generation that has less cares about their privacy and security, how do we save our kids from technology so to speak?
We simply teach them about proper usage. We have an entire course we now teach at the schools and another for parents in the evening.
ReplyDeleteChris, That is what we do now. It is not enough.
ReplyDeleteAt your schools is it mandatory for parents to attend? We are debating that now.