Lots of time, legislation, and discussion has been put toward keeping children safe on the Internet. The Child Internet Protection Act of 2000 is probably the best known example of effort to control what America's children are exposed to on the Internet. Recently, Texas Senate Bill 136 required the Texas School Safety Center, in cooperation with the attorney general, to develop a program that provides instruction concerning Internet safety, including potential dangers of disclosing personal information online, inappropriate online solicitation, and online bullying or threats occurring over the Internet.
While these initiatives are important, I don't think they are comprehensive. Anyone who is around teenagers for longer than 10 minutes today realizes that children often rely on cell phones as their primary communication device. Children also use gaming devices, digital cameras, PDA's, calculators, etc. All of these devices require supervision, constraints, and limits. Students have got to learn to deal with barrage of digital information and remarkable amount of digital freedom that we enjoy. We need to continue to urge the government to regulate appropriately.
TISD spends approximately $20,000 annually for filtering software. Why should schools have to keep the "bad guys" out? Isn't that the responsibility of the government? I know of no other place where children can readily access inappropriate information - magazines, books, substances, etc. are regulated to protect our young. We also need to make sure that we prepare our students well to be able to responsibly manage their digital use. I applaud the state of Texas for recognizing the need for education. I hope that we can develop a comprehensive, meaningful curriculum to prepare our students for the world they live in now and will work in in the future.
2 comments:
I think it is like you said we need to filter along with monitoring. I really think it is everyone who works with students job to keep them safe and this is just another way we have to work to keep students safe.
It will take all of us doing our part to ensure our children's safety with technology. Parents need to be aware and take an active part in the technology they have made available for their childrens'use. Teachers also need to take an active roll as they use different technologies in educating proper use and discussing the the dangers that can go along with nonresponsible use of it. The government should also continue to support efforts to educate and introduce laws or guidelines that we as a society may need as reminders of the dangers our children maybe at risk.
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