Via yesterday’s New York Times, a great article by Leslie Berlin (who is the project historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford) about the different techniques and technologies used to moderate children’s virtual worlds for inappropriate/dangerous content and risky behaviours. The article focuses on vw’s that try to monitor “intent as well as content”…rather than simply blocking keywords or limiting communication altogether. It also describes that bullying and disclosing personal info remain the most common dangers faced by young people online. According to Berlin, the biggest challenges for vw moderators are keeping up with “user innovations” aimed at bypassing moderation tools (such as “workarounds” or “secret codes”), as well as striking a balance between technological solutions and human judgement when it comes to deciding which words, workarounds and behaviours should ultimately be filtered out. However, this “balance” is becoming increasingly reliant on technology and sophisticated in-game surveillance tools.
Gamine Expedition: Virtual Playground Monitors
Rock on Gamine Expedition! This is GREAT READ for anyone in this biz who needs an intro to the importance of moderation & mod tools, so please click the link above and get to reading. If you want, bring back questions and we can start some discussions about this stuff.
Cheers!
Filed under: Education, Online Community Expert, Parents, Teens, Youth, accountability, child safety, entertainment, kid empowerment, kid entertainment, kid pop culture, learning, moderation, moderator, online community, pop culture, pro-kid movement, responsibility, screener, social networking, tween, user generated content, virtual world
