In 1978, an award-winning documentary showed a group of teen juvenile offenders being taken to a New Jersey maximum-security prison, where for three hours “a group of inmates known as ‘the lifers’ berate[d], scream[ed] at, and terrif[ied] the young offenders in an attempt to ‘scare them straight” so they’d stop offending, as Wikipedia tells the story. The film actually popularized the “Scared … [Read more...] about At last: Sext ed based on facts not fear
I hardly need to weigh in because I already did – in depth, last summer, at the peak of the last Momo wave. But I will only to highlight the best thinking I've seen this go round and add 4 points – lessons from this – to consider when the next wave hits (because this will certainly not be the last, and why reinvent the wheel every time?). First the points: Who's the (potential) victim, anyway? … [Read more...] about Momo. Again.
For Data Privacy Day (1/28), let's take a look at students' data privacy – as in the data on their cellphones and whether school administrators have the right to search the devices. The ACLU says they don't. It called out a school board in Tennessee for violating the constitutional rights of students by implementing a policy that allows school officials to search digital devices kids bring to … [Read more...] about Of student digital privacy & schools demanding passwords
There are all kinds of reasons why "bullying" and "cyberbullying" can't be applied to just any kind of mean behavior that happens in physical or digital spaces. Professor and author Justin Patchin goes into a bunch of them in his latest blog post, but parents may want to know why lack of definition is a problem for schools as well as for students. For example, Patchin writes, "recently-passed … [Read more...] about Why defining ‘bullying’ is important for schools
As a society, we're getting closer to the heart of social media safety, which is largely, not entirely, a blend of emotional and social (psychosocial) safety. This thoughtful piece by Prof. Justin Patchin of the Cyberbullying Research Center – "Bullies or Best Friends? The Challenge of Interpreting Interpersonal Relationships" – raises some important questions for parents and school staff as well … [Read more...] about What are we really seeing in the social media fishbowl?