"I value the privacy of my home and personal life… (cont)”

“…extremely highly and am prepared to take appropriate measures to protect it.”  -Mary Archer

DOH!  And how safe do you feel?

Worried About Your Social Security Number Getting Out?

Equally Identifying Phone Records Now Available Through People Search Web SiteDownload this press release as an Adobe PDF document.Though not as publicized as social security numbers, phone numbers are equally as unique to an individual and equally as useful in locating someone online. People search web site PeopleFinders.com has released new phone search technology to allow a user to locate someone based on up to and more than 30 years of historical phone number ownership records.

Worried About Your Social Security Number Getting Out? Equally Identifying Phone Records Now Available Through People Search Web Site

Now think about all the children that are armed with their OWN cell phones, cell phone numbers, and lives in the open online world….

"If we don’t stand up for children, then we don’t stand for much.”

(Quote by Marian Wright Edelman)

Tag, you’re out!
Schools try to discourage the game, but it endures — for good reason.
By Janet Cromley, Times Staff Writer
November 6, 2006
You’re it!  You’re it!  AS school administrators wrestle with the deeply controversial issues of educating America’s youth — evolution versus creationism, metal detectors on campus, standardized testing — one topic has really put them in the public hot seat: the schoolyard game of tag.  The issue made national headlines recently when Willett Elementary School in Attleboro, Mass., officially banned the venerable skinner of knees, inspiring considerable derision in editorials and online discussion boards. (Schools in South Carolina, Wyoming and Washington have instituted similar bans.)The topic is so no-win that school officials, admittedly busy with loftier issues, are reluctant to discuss it.But the reality is that schools across the United States have been quietly discouraging tag for years….

Tag, you’re out! - Los Angeles Times

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Pro kid vs responsibility battle wages on.  Kids fall!  Let them fall!  How else will they learn to stand up and brush themselves off?  HOWEVER… on school grounds– every kid becomes a liability, and in a sue-crazy, bubble-wrap-every-kid America, when is too far too far? Too much, too much?

Kids also have to learn safety & such on their own terms.  They have to learn their OWN limits.  Just try telling a kid his own limit.  It’s like trying to tell a 21 year old NOT to drink on their 21st birthday.  Yah, good luck.

Kids get wrapped up in their own ball of energy.  If they don’t let that energy out, I truly believe a little piece of their innocence, their youth… their freedom will die.  Kids are in learning phase, they can’t learn EVERYTHING by lecture.  If you play too hard, you can fall and get hurt.  Try telling that to a kid and have them understand.  They won’t.  If anything they’ll look at you like your BONKERS, or it will pass seamlessly in one ear and right out the other. 

Watch the kids. Let them play.  Settle them down when its too much.  Ask them. Warn them.   Give them a chance to catch themselves.  Maybe join in on the fun and EXEMPLIFY the type of play you would like to see…. Stop them when they’re close to a road or danger– that’s when others can hurt.  Just be a human, not a dictator, and ask yourself… what did I do as a kid? Do I remember this? Did I love it?  Then ask yourself– from a kid’s perspective– if its work it to take it away.

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths…

but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” (Anne Frank)

 Check out this article:

Teach the Children: Your Kids Need to Know What Dangers Threaten Them Everyday - Associated Content

It’s not an internet-centered piece, but what the author does is remind you WHY its important to keep your child aware of the dangers in life. Expectations are both bad and good… assumptions are both bad and good… it depends upon the context in which they lie.

While surfing the next, if your expect to see inappropriate material, you’ll be prepared to deal with it. If you’re not under the assumption that predetors prowl the information super highways… then you won’t realize when conversations reveal too much information.

When I was in college, I was on the elementary teacher-track. I had student taught at a strict private school where things like Spongebob were illegal contraband (cartoon rears of sponges are inappropriate it seems). After the experience was over, we had only one class/seminar remaining before graduation– and it was the culmination of our entire 4 year education degree. We were asked to research the negative influence of books (book burning, influences, racism, etc) on classrooms, families, etc. I decided to research HARRY POTTER. Like Spongebob, Harry Potter was banned from the school I taught at. Harry = witchcraft, devil, evil, rebellion, and paganism (so says the school & its followers). But the school wasn’t alone. Religious demoninations all over the US were banning HP, burning HP, and preaching against HP.

Personally– I love HP and everything it stands for. I have my religion, and witchcraft is not part of it… but fantasy is fantasy, and people are allowed to believe in whatever they wish. Its their life, not mine.

So, one evening I sat down in the crowded University computer lab, at a computer, stuck on my headphones, logged into the net, and began my research. IN my google surfing, I came across a website called, Mothers Against Harry Potter. Mothers against HP? Mothers? Okay– sounded like a great resource. A mother’s opinion about their child’s literature was the direct source I was interested in– from the horses mouth (to be cliche). I clicked the site, and then IT happened.

PORN– EVERYWHERE! It was a trap. Thousands and thousands of pages opened over and over on my screen, revealing HORRIBLE images. I couldn’t stop it. The program was locked, and the porn rolled in. Worse yet– my earphones started blasting “I’M LOOKING AT PORN, I’M LOOKING AT PORN.” They were the old school earphones (not earbuds) with the sponge that really did NOTHING to keep in sound. Everyone could hear the screaming voice. Everyone could see my screen. Highly embarassing. Eventually I had to crawl under the desk and yank the plug from the wall, forcing the computer to be silenced.

Trouble lurks around every corner– whether it be in Chicago, Mumbai, Google, or Myspace. It’s there. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF IT. Just be aware, and educated enough to deal with it properly.

Sure– god said DO NOT EAT THAT APPLE, EVE. But, you can’t help but wonder… if Eve knew more about the Snake, it’s intentions, and the big ole boot from heaven BEFORE she bit the apple, perhaps she would have been prepared– perhaps armed with a snake-hungry mongoose.

The Secret War= Teens Vs Social Responsibility

“The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.” (Alfred North Whitehead)

There is a website for online communities that I absolutely adore: blogsafety.com.  It’s an unusual mix of teens, parents, and people in the OC biz.  What I find extremely interesting is the strong opinions had by the teens.  When I say strong… I mean “air-tight vacuum view of i’m right-you’re wrong.”  Now, that may seem snarky to say, but it’s the truth, and it also isn’t necessarily bad.  Depends on your view, I supose.

There are several very opinionated teens hell-bent on keeping their internet-freedom.  They cry out in hate toward techno-gizmos that act as internet babysitters, they boast hacking talents, and they spout anti-over protective parents.  There are two extremes that they subscribe to:

1) The parent with no time to parent, so they buy a virtual babysitter that restricts almost everything, hoping that they system will do the job for them, thus leaving the child with no common sense when it comes to life online.   Then they hope expect everyone else to assist in parenting responsibilities.  It’s like the Lynnette (Desperate Housewives) meets Timmy Turner’s parents (Fairly Odd Parents).
2) The parent with an extraordinarily intense outlook– they practically bubble wrap their children to ensure that they won’t fall.  They won’t let their child be online alone, they won’t let their child play gun-related video games, they won’t let their child do anything that could put them in any kind of situation.  They’re like Mrs. Cleaver & Annie Wilkes from Misery  all wrapped into one uptight ball.

The teens posting on that site are upset, frustrated, and starting to take on Martyr attitudes.  They want their freedom.  They want to explore the net.  They think that if their peers cannot take care of themselves online then they ‘deserve’ what they get.  Now… not ALL of the teens on the site subscribe to this mentality, but some of the stronger voices have repeated this viewpoint several times.  Yet– you can’t help but wonder if these teens are representative of their generation, or the sick-and-tired-let’s-complain-to-adults kids.
The problem I have with their attitudes does not have to do with freedom.  I understand the idea that kids should learn how to fall.  If they fall, how will they ever know to pick themselves up?  But as a member of society I want to do what I can to protect kids from predators, illicit conent, and inappropriate situations.  I am worried about the kids who never talked to their parents about safety online.  If a teen never has a conversation with their parent regarding safe sex, will the teen be able to talk to their parent if something goes wrong? Will they ever understand the importance of choices & consequences?  It is not my job to parent, but it is my job to do whatever I can to ensure protection in the worlds that I build.  It’s liability.  It’s insurance.  It’s being a good person.  It’s being a leader.

How do we ask for empathy, show risk & liability, and expect understanding from teens who think we’re out to bubblewrap them?

….this is going to be a conversation I KNOW I will repeat throughout the coarse of my blog & my journey within managing online communities.  Any information, feedback, thoughts, or thought-raising-questions are always welcome.

Dedicated Fans ROCK!

“The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf.”

(quote: Shakti Gawain)

Please Sign My Petition!My name is Hils and I love Edgar & Ellen stories by Charles Ogden. I love them so much that when I found out he is working on his 6th story, I was really happy. Then I found out it was to be his last Edgar & Ellen story! I was so sad. I was so sad, I took a drastic step — I decided to start a petition drive to ask him to write more stories after book #6.

We Want More Edgar & Ellen Stories!: Please Sign My Petition!