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A recent survey by Consumer Policy Solutions has found that online safety and privacy rank highest among concerns of adults online. The consulting firm which focuses on consumer interests and the marketplace, earlier this month released results of a survey that showed 56% of respondents don't think they have enough, or any, privacy online.

"The lawyer for a Missouri mother accused of creating a fake MySpace page to harass a 13-year-old girl is arguing that charges should be tossed out of court because if she is guilty, then so are millions of Internet users every day."

Bernajean Porter works with educators everywhere to teach digital storytelling. She joined Tim Wilson in the NECC podcasting studio to talk about ISTE's new digital storytelling project and the newest digital storytelling frontier, Second Life.

4-minute video: "Welcome to the World of We Think. Based on a new book by Charles Leadbeater, 'We Think' explores the potential of the latest developments of the internet.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has made it one of his priorities to install methods of protection for the state's children when it comes to using these Web sites, hoping to "make social networking safer," according to a press release generated by his office. Efforts by Facebook and MySpace to protect privacy are described in this article.

Dizzywood, a virtual world and online game for children ages 8-12, today announced that it has been selected by the YMCA of San Francisco to enhance the youth program's technology curriculum. The YMCA is using Dizzywood's virtual environment to reinforce its program emphasis on activities that promote values such as caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Children also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals. The YMCA program is similar to the elementary school program that Dizzywood recently completed with the Reed Union School District (Marin County, CA). The highly interactive workshop, which ran from April through June, used virtual activities to reinforce the school's character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness, among other core values.

This amazing library collection of cybersafety and cyberethics articles from Symantec would make a great resource for teachers who want to assign students different topic areas for student presentations in a digital citizenship class.

This research is being carried out for The National Youth Agency who offer a range of opportunities for young people to influence policy and practice. How does youth work best support young people to manage the risks and make the most of the opportunities presented by social networking technology? Running from December 2007 till mid-January 2008 this UK-based survey seeks to identify youth workers current use of social networking technologies; their current role support young people to safely and effective use social networking technologies; their understanding of the benefits and risks of social networking technologies; their interests in developing their use of social networking technologies; and potential barriers to youth workers using, and supporting young people to use, social networking technologies.

According to a new report from OTX and The Intelligence Group, teens actually prefer real world interaction to the virtual worlds offered online.

Confused by all the clutter at the MySpace site? Look for a rehaul of the MySpace interface on 6/18/08, according to press releases today. MySpace design teams are hoping that the improvements will help attract social networking laggards to the site.

Live feeds from social networking sites make it easy to monitor the actions of friends. But how much information constitutes "too much information" is a conversation that needs to take place with teens. Not everything is as private as it may seem.

The Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative (Michigan CSI) is an Internet safety education program with customized presentations for kindergarten through eighth-grade students and a community seminar. There are many downloadable handouts for educators and parents, including an online safety contract, social networking discussion questions (parent dialogue with child), templates, slides and sample presentations.

Teachers warned about communicating with students via social networking sites

Anne Collier provides us with thoughtful analysis and commentary on the MacArthur Foundation's recent symposium [April 2008) at Stanford, "From MySpace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth." Click here for the entire Digital Youth presentation.

New York City's Department of Health launched its Mindspace program last week, an attempt to reach at-risk teens by creating MySpace pages for kids battling common mental health issues.
Though many teens experience mental health issues, they are often reluctant to acknowledge them and seek help. When asked who they are most likely to talk with when they feel sad, more than 20% of teens NYC Teen said they talk to no one, one-third said they would talk to a friend only (31%), and just one-third said they would talk to an adult (32%). The Mindspace page responds to these issues with interactive features that raise awareness and combat stigma by helping teens identify with peers and prompting them to seek help.

The Health Department today announced a new online campaign to engage teenagers grappling with depression, drugs, and violence, and to encourage them to seek help. NYC Teen Mindspace, posted on MySpace, is the agency's first effort to promote health through Web-based social networking - a medium with great potential because of its popularity with young people

Media stories over the past year have heightened public awareness regarding cyber safety, teens and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) use. The emphasis of media attention has often been on the victimization and bullying of teens occurring on social network sites such as Myspace and Facebook. The prominence placed on ICT platforms, such as the Internet and Cell Phones, as threatening spheres has resulted in a narrow view of cyber security. Instead, I argue that we need to rethink the meaning of cyber safety for teens and begin a more complex dialog about best cyber safety practices.

University of Minnesota study uncovers the educational benefits of social networking sites. "What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today," said Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher in the university's College of Education and Human Development and principal investigator of the study.

Meet the new philanthropists - Silicon Valley teens with innate computer networking skills, affluent family connections and the one-click ability to bear witness to global poverty.