Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

"Our computer use policy is extensive. The frame is this is how you will use the computers when you are here, you can't go on these sites and do these things while you're at school, but when they get out from school and start using computers of their own to do some of these things, then it becomes a little bit more clouded," he said.

The problem NEOLA faces is a lack of law to base policies on regarding student and staff use of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. In turn, there are no policies for district administrators to follow, leaving a gray area for disciplinary issues. State legislature was passed regarding bullying, so NEOLA set policies based on that, but in terms of writing policy on technology, direction is what NEOLA is lacking.

It was a mixed blessing that within 24 hours of creating her Facebook page, my kid was harassed unmercifully by a so-called friend — someone she thought was a friend in real life — to the point where she had to unfriend and block other communications from them. I couldn’t have made my case any better about the dangers of social media if I’d paid the obnoxious bully to do it for me.

Conversations on each page quickly degenerated into some general types of questions/comments: “I hate you” comments were remarkably prevalent. I saw people calling each other names that I wouldn’t use around my closest friends. Moreover, the frequency of these comments was staggering. In a lot of ways, this site more or less encourages cyber-bullying, and does it in a public space. “You’re awesome” comments are much less disturbing, but encourage a pretty self-centered view on life. For example, I saw a few comments such as, “Why are people judging you? You’re so nice!” Not surprisingly, the students in question respond with statements about how they are good people that don’t judge other people but that other people actually judge them. Questions/comments about sex. Every question that can be asked about a person’s sexual history, preference, etc. is being discussed in public for the world to see. Like I said – I’ll never look at some kids the same way again. This site allows a space for kids to do discuss these things in an uncontrolled environment without talking about issues with parents or teachers or people who may have a little more experience and wisdom. Think MySpace encouraged risky behavior? Looking at two pages on Formspring, I saw full names, cities, and cell phone numbers posted for all the world to see. At our school, we try to teach kids what information to put out there and to be responsible citizens of the internet. Apparently our lessons aren’t sticking.