July 2008 — News
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Mitigating the Internet's Negative Consequences
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For the last 11 years Marje Monroe and Doug Fodeman have worked to educate schools, parents and students about the issues that affect children in an online world. Their Web site, ChildrenOnline.org, offers practical articles, resources, research, and a monthly newsletter on the topic. Recently, the team, which has a long background in education, self-published Safe Practices for Life Online, intended to show middle and high school students what scams target them and how to use the Internet more safely. A teacher's edition of the book will be available through the International Society for Technology in Education in November. In August, they'll self-publish a third guide, intended to help parents set appropriate limits around technology use and talk to their teens about how to protect their privacy online.
THE Journal: What was the inspiration for writing this book for schools?
Marje Monroe: It was really trying to provide concrete curriculum for schools to use in helping to educate our students around important topics online: privacy, social skills, all sorts of difficult issues. But I think a lot of schools should have this just as they have drug education, alcohol education, sex education. This should be part of that.
Doug Fodeman: We're surprised by the number of issues that people aren't speaking to or addressing or even raising about kids around Internet problems. A simple problem: We routinely see how kids are avoiding the face to face risks of difficult conversations that we all grow up learning how to muddle through and have by simply turning to texting or IMing or sending e-mail. A classic example. We've had 16- to 17-year-old kids [say], "I'd rather break up with my boyfriend or girlfriend by IMing or texting than doing it in person, because it's easier."
We feel sad that increasingly kids are looking to anonymity of computer to avoid those conversations. What's it say about the skills they're missing as they grow through adolescence in young adulthood?
