News for the Week of May 4, 2008
In youth-tech news this week, a look at how parents can help their kids open up about what happens online, plus nude photo-sharing among teens, from one family that's been there...
'The talk' revisited
It's not what you might think it's about. It's not even a single, now-you-get-it conversation. It's an ongoing, long-term conversation families need to have about safe, constructive use of the Net and communications devices because both kids and technology keep changing. Marian Merritt, Symantec's chief online-safety evangelist, recently wrote about it, and I agree with her: "Your goal," she suggests to parents, "is to understand how your child is using technology, recognize any potential risk factors that need addressing and ensure you are the person your child can go to if something weird should happen when they are on the Web."
Talking points
All of that's important, especially that last point, because research shows that kids don't talk to parents about bad stuff that happens online, and we need to do everything possible to encourage them to. Merritt offers talking points for "the talk(s)" in the form of some questions you can start off with, but don't forget another good bit of advice: "Have the conversation during a quiet time when there are no time pressures," have the online computer at hand in case you want to check things out together, and "keep the chat neutral, not confrontational" so your child will continue the conversation willingly the next time!
Nude photo-sharing: Q from a family that's been there
In response to my feature "Naked photo-sharing trend," "Marcia" in New Jersey emailed me about her own daughter's extremely difficult experience with sharing a photo of herself. With Marcia's permission, I sent her story and question about it to psychiatrist Jerald Block in Oregon and Det. Frank Dannahey, a youth division officer in Connecticut and with everybody's permission (for privacy protection, "Marcia" is not her real name), I'm sharing their perspectives here.
In other news...
- Online teens: Snapshot by numbers. A whopping 93% of US teens (12-to-17-year-olds) are online, Pew/Internet's Mary Madden told NPR recently. That's up 20 percentage points from the 2000 figure for online teens in the US. Not surprising to most of their parents, the "frequency and intensity" of their Internet use is "also increasing, such that most teens are online every day," Madden also told NPR, and "a majority of teenagers who go online maintain one or more profiles at social-networking Web sites."
- Grand Theft Auto IV's realism all bad? A lot of media reports about GTA IV's blockbuster release last week focus on the negative. Don't get me wrong, this violent game is appropriately rated "M" for ages 17+ only in the US, but listen to this in Slate.com and see if it isn't somewhat encouraging: "Based on my play experience [with GTA IV] so far and in talking with reviewers who have finished the game," Chris Baker writes, "I get the sense that freewheeling killing sprees will no longer be the main draw. This is partly because the central missions and story are so well-conceived and well-written compared with previous iterations of the game and partly because the violence is far more disturbing." It's no longer cartoonish, he writes. "Shoot an innocent bystander, and you see his face contort in agony. He'll clutch at the wound and begin to stagger away, desperately seeking safety... I felt unnerved. What makes Grand Theft Auto IV so compelling is that, unlike so many video games, it made me reflect on all of the disturbing things I had done." Maybe this disturbance is healthy? Could it be that GTA4 signals a future of more thought-provoking game play (at least for healthy players)? Baker's view was echoed in a thoughtful New Zealand Herald piece covering GTA4's release: Some GTA players "have referred to the 'uncanny valley' hypothesis - that when facsimiles of humans, such as game avatars, look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion" or "repulsion, eeriness or discomfort," CNET reports. Interestingly, this is in the context of New Zealand law, which says it's illegal for anyone to make a game rated R18 (this country's game rating for ages 18+ only) available to minors. Even parents who do so "could face three months in prison or a $10,000 fine" (the law, in effect since 1994, has never been enforced).
- 'Honesty Box' encouraging cyberbullying? You've probably seen mentions of JuicyCampus.com, which has gotten some national attention. I've also blogged about "Honesty Box," which - as a widget social networkers can put on their profiles - is in effect a mini JuicyCampus (see this about the latter). These are phenomena of the participatory Web, on which too many people have a distorted sense of their free-speech rights that goes something like "I can say anything nasty I want about anybody (which is not what the First Amendment is about) because I'm anonymous (which they aren't, truly). Having said that, no social site or anything on the user-driven Web is all good or all bad, but some sites and services - such as JuicyCampus and Honesty Box - do seem to be more negative than neutral, more conducive to the darkside of human nature. The ReallyWorried blog is campaigning to get Facebook to delete the Honesty Box widget from its lineup of these little software applications. Three interesting points are made among the comments underneath the blogger's post: 1) Honesty Box is an opt-in widget users can choose not to have on their profiles (and can unsubscribe if they do and change their minds); 2) that may be true about unsubscribing, but the widgetmakers make it hard to unsubscribe; and 3) Facebook "should do everything in its power" to be a safe site for all. The Honesty Box application is not going to help him achieve this." So, my readers, what do you think? Email me your thoughts at anne@netfamilynews.org, or post them at the ConnectSafely forum for the benefit of all. Thanks!
- Two new WB sites for kids & youth. Warner Bros. has two new Web sites aimed at a generation increasingly more interested in the Web than in watching TV. KidsWB.com features timeless favorites like Bugs, Scooby Doo, and DC Comics heroes (e.g., Batman), the Associated Press reports, and "TheWB.com - with full episodes of shows such as 'Friends,' 'Smallville' and made-for-online shows" - is targeting 20-somethings. "It also will be possible to view TheWB.com inside Facebook users' home pages and vice versa," the AP adds.
