Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

Monitoring Your Child’s Facebook

April 28, 2011

It’s never ideal to secretly review your child’s activities, but sometimes it’s an imperative that cannot be avoided.  Rather than recommend that parents use this new innovation that allows them to oversee their child’s Facebook page without being classified as their friend, I think it’s important to alert parents and teachers of its existence.

INTERNET security firm Check Point overnight launched software that lets parents watch over offspring on Facebook without being “friends” at the online social network.

ZoneAlarm SocialGuard alerts parents to signs of trouble in a child’s Facebook account without them being privy to all posts, comments, pictures, videos or other digital content shared between friends at the website.

The program scans Facebook profiles, communications and “friend” requests and uses algorithms to identify potential bullying, sexual overtures, or talk of drugs, violence or suicide.

SocialGuard software runs unseen in the background, flagging suspicious activity and sending alerts to parents, according to its Redwood City, California-based creators.

“It’s about protecting your kids from the social threats out there, while still respecting their privacy and fostering open communication,” said Check Point vice president of consumer sales Bari Abdul.

“We are offering Facebook users a simple way to embrace social networking safely,” he continued.

SocialGuard is crafted to detect hacked accounts, malicious links, online predators, and cyber-bullies, according to Check Point.

The software also checks to determine whether people contacting children online are being deceptive about their ages or if a stranger is trying to become a Facebook “friend.”

“Parents are increasingly concerned, and rightfully so, about the dramatically increasing trend of criminals, predators and bullies targeting children over social networks,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

“SocialGuard provides a strong suite of tools that can effectively protect children from these types of social threats that are keeping parents awake at night.”

Check Point cited a survey indicating that 38 percent of teenagers have ignored requests from parents to be friends on Facebook, and that 16 percent of children have only done so as a condition of using the social network.

SocialGuard was available online at zonealarm.com for $US2 ($1.85) monthly or $US20 annually.

Spying on kids is the very last resort.  You would hope that children are able to use social media responsibly.  Unfortunately, too often that is not the case.  Therefore, for safety reasons, it is important that parents are aware of safeguards like this one.

Cyber Bullying Takes Bullying to a New Level

April 13, 2011

It would be taking bullying too lightly to say it was important or a priority.  It is much more serious than that.  Bullying is a huge area of concern worldwide and is the issue most in need of consideration and due diligence in our schools.  I am happy to hear that in my home state of Victoria, legislation has been passed making it a crime to bully, with workplace bullies jailed for up to 10 years.

It is reassuring to see that cyber bullying is included in this piece of legislation:

The legislation would also cover cyber bullying. It’s happening in other places too.

With the internet covering every part of our lives, cyber bullying has become more prevalent now than ever before. Access to mobile phones, the Facebook phenomenon and YouTube have made it a real problem. Cyber bullying is now so bad that it’s being looked at by a parliamentary committee. Facebook says its removing 20,000 under age users globally each day, but the problem continues. Cyber bullying is perpetrated not just by young people. Take for example the revelations of a gay hate campaign on Facebook in the Australian Defence Force. //

Cyber bullying can take many forms. It can include being teased or made fun of online, being sent threatening emails,  having rumours spread about you online, having unpleasant comments, pictures or videos about you sent or posted on websites like Facebook or MySpace,  being sent unwanted messages, being deliberately ignored or left out of things on the internet or even having someone use your screen name or password and pretending to be you to hurt someone else.

One of the worst examples recently popped up when Blake Rice, who lost his mother and brother in Queensland’s floods, was bashed by six youths because of all the attention he was getting. After leaving him with a broken collar bone, they set up a Facebook page titled We bashed Blake Rice.

The effect of cyber bullying can not be underestimated.  When a child is bullied in the schoolyard, they may find sanctuary in the comfort and safety of their home and family.  This basic right is not afforded to victims of cyber bullying.  They are bullied from the very place they go to for safety and certainty.  With cyber bullying, there is nowhere to hide.

Another unique aspect of cyber bullying, is that when students are bullied at school there is a clear expectation that the Principal and staff will work together to protect these students.  Who are our children to turn to when they are being bullied online?  Their teachers?  Their parents?

This frustrating aspect is highlighted quite clearly through this heartbreaking letter to the Editor from a mother in the UK.

I WAS so pleased to read the article from a concerned father on Facebook Bullying.

I am the parent of a 13 year old girl attending a West Norfolk High School.

We have experienced the horror of Facebook Bullying, which follows on from a day of hell for my daughter in school.

I have had to complain to the school, visit the school, etc, on many occasions since my daughter started three years ago, only to be told the same thing time and time again – the bullies have been spoken too, the bullies have been dealt with; only to find that same evening it starts again at home in the form of Facebook.

The horrible taunts, the name calling, and then more join in and back up the bully’s comments. My daughter puts a far braver face on it than I ever could, but as a mother I feel her pain – and I am disgusted that the parents of these children are not checking what their delightful children are saying and the manner in which they are saying it.

I log on to my daughter’s Facebook with her permission every day now. On occasions as I have been doing this I have had vile messages sent to me via chat – and they get a nasty shock when they realise they have not actually sent it to my daughter.

I have threatened them with Police, with their parents and for cyber bullying, but most times you just get verbal abuse back.

What is happening to our children and our schools?

I have thought about taking my daughter off Facebook altogether to protect her, but why should she be the one who feels punished; why should she miss out on what the majority of her peers are enjoying responsibly?

Also it helps me as a parent to see just what the poor child is enduring and a least, on an upside, I can be there for her and support her through this the best I can – and I have the names of the bullies.

Perhaps Facebook should have been thought through before its launch – 18 years minimum age for access maybe.

There may just be a chance then that these awful bullying children may have reached maturity, and know right from wrong.

ANOTHER CONCERNED PARENT (MOTHER)

Should Teachers Have Students as Facebook Friends?

April 12, 2011

My answer to this question is a categorical no.  Whilst my own teachers were generous with their time, even giving out their phone numbers (when I was in 12th grade) to offer help after hours, this sort of generosity is now just plain unprofessional.  Teachers should not accept invitations to be Facebook friends with their students, nor should they be giving out their phone numbers.

It seems that this issue is a concern around the world.  A study was recently conducted in Ontario, which featured the following recommendations:

A report, to be released Monday, recommends teachers neither accept — nor send out — Facebook friend requests involving students. They should avoid texting, and never communicate by email using a personal account, says the advisory from the Ontario College of Teachers, the body that oversees the profession.

Online communications should be via “established education platforms” such as web pages set up for a school project or class, says the report, obtained by the Toronto Star.

Teachers should also only contact students electronically during the same times they’d feel comfortable calling home.

“When we are communicating with students, face-to-face or in more traditional ways, we are trying to replicate that in other media,” said Michael Salvatori, the college’s registrar.

“The informal language of texting is not the kind of interaction a teacher and student would have … there are lots of ways teachers can be available for students without texting.”

The report comes as school boards try to figure out how to create rules around the use of social media, without hampering efforts by educators to engage students by using it.

And, increasingly, just as in their real life, teachers’ conduct online is also coming under scrutiny. Recently, in the U.S., teachers have been suspended for posting inappropriate comments on their personal Facebook pages, on their own time; one said he hated his job and students, another compared herself to a “warden” supervising “future criminals.”

This is only the third advisory the college has ever issued, and it will follow up with information sessions around the province this month and next.

Few school boards have a social media policy as yet, trusting to general guidelines around teacher and online conduct to cover it for now.

That’s because social media has exploded in the past few years, said Paul Elliott, vice-president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, which put out a pamphlet for teachers on the issue a while ago.

It’s the newly graduated teachers who tend to have a tough time at the start, he added.

They’ve been active on Facebook, and they are moving into a profession where behaviour that wasn’t considered objectionable before is now inappropriate — such as posting a picture enjoying a beer with friends, he said.

As for texting, it can sometimes prove “a useful tool of communication in the classroom, with the curriculum — but that’s the only time it should be in use,” he said.

The college has also warned teachers that anything they post online can be altered, and that “innocent actions” can be “easily misconstrued or manipulated.” The report cites several disciplinary cases, albeit extreme ones, where emails or other online communications were involved.

There is no good reason for a teacher to be communicating with students through Facebook or any other forms of social media.  While I respect and appreciate my teachers for giving me the opportunity to call on them after hours with queries or concerns, I don’t think the current day teacher should be allowed to do the same today.  Teachers must be responsible and careful in their dealing with their students.  There is nothing responsible about being a Facebook friend with your student.

Are Kids Addicted to Technology?

April 11, 2011

Technology is a wonderful thing when it doesn’t take over your life.  In context, technological innovations such as mobile phones and the internet connect you to others and make day-to-day operations easier to carry out and more time effective.  But technology addiction, like all other addictions, is something to be concerned about.

Children need a range of different experiences and stimuli.  They need exercise, real human interaction and routine.  When an addiction, such as internet addiction occurs, it tends to become quite a negative and destructive situation.

But are kids really addicted to technology?

Researchers found nearly four in five students had significant mental and physical distress, panic, confusion and extreme isolation when forced to unplug from technology for an entire day.

They found college students at campuses across the globe admitted being “addicted” to modern technology such as mobile phones, laptops and television as well as social networking such as Facebook and Twitter.

A “clear majority” of almost 1,000 university students, interviewed at 12 campuses in 10 countries, including Britain, America and China, were unable to voluntarily avoid their gadgets for one full day, they concluded.

The University of Maryland research described students’ thoughts in vivid detail, in which they admit to cravings, anxiety attacks and depression when forced to abstain from using media.

One unnamed American college student told of their overwhelming cravings, which they confessed was similar to “itching like a crackhead (crack cocaine addict)”.

The study, published by the university’s International Centre for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) and the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change, concluded that “most students… failed to go the full 24 hours without media”.

The research, titled The world Unplugged, also found students’ used “virtually the same words to describe their reactions”.

These included emotions such as fretful, confused, anxious, irritable, insecure, nervous, restless, crazy, addicted, panicked, jealous, angry, lonely, dependent, depressed, jittery and paranoid.

Prof Susan Moeller, who led the research, said technology had changed the students’ relationships.

“Students talked about how scary it was, how addicted they were,” she said.

“They expected the frustration. But they didn’t expect to have the psychological effects, to be lonely, to be panicked, the anxiety, literally heart palpitations.

“Technology provides the social network for young people today and they have spent their entire lives being ‘plugged in’.”

The study interviewed young people, aged between 17 and 23, including about 150 students from Bournemouth University, who were asked to keep a diary of their thoughts.

They were told to give up their mobile phones, the internet, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and they were not allowed to watch television.

They were, however, permitted to use landline telephones and read books.

The study found that one in five reported feelings of withdrawal akin to addiction while more than one in 10 admitted being left confused and feeling like a failure.

Just 21 per cent said they could feel the benefits of being unplugged.

One British participant reported: “I am an addict. I don’t need alcohol, cocaine or any other derailing form of social depravity… Media is my drug; without it I was lost.2

Another wrote: ‘I literally didn’t know what to do with myself. Going down to the kitchen to pointlessly look in the cupboards became regular routine, as did getting a drink.’

A third said: ‘I became bulimic with my media; I starved myself for a full 15 hours and then had a full-on binge.’

While a fourth student added: “I felt like a helpless man on a lonely deserted island in the big ocean”.

Prof Moeller added: “Some said they wanted to go without technology for a while but they could not as they could be ostracised by their friends.’

“When the students did not have their mobile phones and other gadgets, they did report that they did get into more in-depth conversations.

“Quite a number reported quite a difference in conversation in terms of quality and depth as a result.”

I realise that it is absolutely vital for teachers to embrace technology and ensure that they are well-trained and up to date with the latest in technological advances.  There is no doubt that introducing technology in the classroom has real benefits.  But in the primary level, I am careful to encourage a balanced approach where my students get a broad range of experiences and use different mediums.
As great as technology is, you can have too much of a good thing.

Bullying is Always Vulgar But Rarely This Bad

April 8, 2011

My country Australia and neighboring New Zealand has had it hard over the past few months, with floods, cyclones and earthquakes causing loss of life and enormous damage to homes, roads and towns.

In a time of tragedy, one of the few positives that can be reflected on, is the way wider communities come together in friendship and solidarity.

That is why it is so upsetting to hear of the bullying inflicted on the brother of Queensland’s flood hero.

First let’s reflect on the story of Jordan Rice’s courage and self-sacrifice:

To then bully Blake Rice, the poor younger brother, is just disgusting!

Blake Rice, 10, has been unable to return to school since he was set upon by the gang, who reportedly recognised him from media reports. The teenagers later set up a Facebook page called “We Bashed Jordan Rice” to boast about the assault.

The incident comes after a series of verbal assaults and threats on the Rice family following the January floods that have forced John Tyson, Blake’s father, to consider moving the family away from their home town of Toowoomba.

Mr Tyson and Blake became well known across the world after Jordan, 13, died in a flash flood in January after telling rescue crews to take his younger brother to safety first. The boys’ mother Donna Rice also died after the family car was swamped in the flood.

The family believe that coverage of Jordan’s heroics have stirred up resentment in the town.

Debbie Anderson, a family friend, told the Toowoomba Chronicle, that they were sick of the way they had been treated by some parts of the community.

She said many members of the Rice family had been bullied, abused and picked on because of what occurred in January.

“They’ve laughed in our face about Jordan’s death,” she said.

The attacks have shocked and appalled the wider community, with Julia Gillard, the prime minister, describing them as “a low act” and Anna Bligh, the Queensland premier, saying the behaviour was “disgusting”.

The local authorities have promised to prosecute the teenagers responsible with “the full force of the law.”

Toowoomba, one hour’s drive west of Brisbane, and the Lockyer Valley were hit by a deadly flash flood on Jan 11 that killed more than 25 people. Communities in the region are still trying to recover.

Bullying of all kinds is vulgar.  It is a reflection of the worst society has to offer.  At a time when Blake needs the support and care of his wider community, he is being harassed, beaten and forced to flee.

Unacceptable and downright awful!

Facebook Banning Children For Lying About Age

March 23, 2011

Congratulations to Facebook for actively banning kids who are lying about their age. Age requirements are important, because young students are often prone to making bad choices with social media and fail to use the recommended privacy settings:

Social networking giant Facebook is banning 20,000 children every day because they have lied about their age to join the site.

The company admitted it had to do more to stop young people using Facebook, as it revealed about a third of Australia’s population uses the site every day, the Herald Sun reported.

At a parliamentary inquiry into cyber-bullying, other social networking and online companies called for campaigns to highlight the dangers of the internet.

And there have been calls for an overhaul of the Australian school curriculum to include more effective cyber-danger classes.

The chief privacy adviser of Facebook, Mozelle Thompson, said many Australian children under the age of 13 were trying to access the site by lying about their age.

“It’s something that happens on a regular basis,” Mr Thompson said.

Globally, about seven million children who lie about their age are blocked from the site each year.

For those parents/teachers unaware of the problem of cyber-saftey or if you have children or students that don’t use the privacy settings option, I urge you to watch this clip with them.

Bullied Hero Speaks

March 21, 2011

Last week I wrote a post about Casey Heynes, the Australian boy who was caught on tape defending himself against a bully.  In a graphic show of what seems to be a completely unprovoked attack, the bully is seen striking Casey with a fist to the jaw.  Casey then responds with the now infamous body slam.  I devoted the post to criticising the school’s response to the incident (It turns out that the child that filmed the video did in fact get suspended too).

So big was the news, and so divided was people’s reaction to Casey’s show of self-defense, that A Current Affair got a 1-on-1 interview with Casey:

The schoolboy who’s become an internet sensation after turning the tables on a bully has told how he snapped after years of cruel taunts about his weight.

Casey Heynes, 16, says he has been bullied nearly every day at his school, Chifley College, at St Marys, but could take no more when Year 7 student Ritchard Gale tormented and attacked him last Monday.

“All I was doing was defending myself. I’ve never had so much support,” he said during an interview with A Current Affair.

Casey reveals he’d been targeted by a new group of Year 7 boys who had started picking on him and teasing him about two weeks prior to the fight.

The Year 10 student said he was surrounded by the students when he went to get a school timetable before class.

As Ritchard backed him against the wall and started throwing punches, Casey said he felt scared and worried that others in the group would also start hitting him.

Eventually, he snapped, picking Ritchard up over his shoulder and throwing him to the ground.

The brawl was recorded on the mobile phone of another student who later posted the video online where he has earned “hero” status.

Asked if he was a superhero, he laughed and said: “No I wish I was.”

The video, which was taken off YouTube on Tuesday, has gone viral worldwide spawning dozens of websites and facebook pages congratulating Casey for fighting back.

It also sparked a media storm with St Marys residents claiming television stations were offering up to $1000 for information about the fight.

Yesterday, Ritchard was unrepentant. Asked whether he was sorry for attacking Casey, he bluntly replied: “No.”

The issue has divided the western Sydney community.

“Good on him. I was so happy to see a bully finally getting what he deserved,” one St Marys resident said.

“I don’t condone violence but when kids stage an attack like that and record it to humiliate the victim it’s wrong.”

But another resident Jayne Saunders said: “He could have broken that little kid’s neck.”

He explained that this wasn’t a one-off incident and he has been taunted for 3 years:

Casey said his outburst was a “build-up” of more than three years of being attacked verbally and physically by other students.

“They used to slap me on the back of the head and said I was a fatty and to lose some weight.

“I’ve been duct taped to a pole before as well. They target me because I don’t retaliate.

“I’ve never reacted that way before but everything built up inside me for three years…I just had enough. All I wanted is for it to stop.”

I am very disappointed that the bully is unrepentant. I would have thought that this saga would have taught him the lesson he needed to learn. Whilst I in no way condone violence of any kind, what rational human person can blame Casey for snapping? Yes Ritchard’s injury could have been a lot worse, and there is a concern that there will be copycat incidents because of the hype around this case. But I can’t help but go back to my original argument.

What is a child supposed to do when they are being taped to polls and there doesn’t seem to be anything done to protect them? I am glad that Casey feels more confident as a result of his new-found fame. But perhaps, the real story is not about Casey. Perhaps the real story is about all those kids who continue to be bullied without adequate intervention by their schools.

Wake Up Schools: You’ve Got a Bullying Problem

March 17, 2011

Whilst anti-bullying programs and policies have their place, the epidemic known as schoolyard bullying is on the rise, and the measures for counteracting it is pathetic at best.  Schools must take responsibility for their culture and must ensure that the safety of their students is paramount.  I can’t believe that incidents like the infamous NSW “body slam” incident, which has now become an internet sensation is allowed to take place at our schools.

THERE are only so many times you can try to turn the other cheek.

A Sydney schoolboy has become an internet sensation after video emerged of him body-slamming another student during a verbal and physical attack.

The year 10 boy – who pleaded with his tormenter to leave him alone – picked up his attacker and slammed him to the ground.

The teenager, said to have been bullied all his school life, was taunted and punched by a younger, smaller boy.

The victim took a hit to the face and then more blows as the year 7 boy goaded him to fight.

Suddenly the boy had had enough. He launched himself at his attacker, picked him up and threw him to the ground.

The younger boy staggered away, stunned and hurt.

Both students were suspended for four days after the incident which took place on Monday.

How can you justify punishing the victim with the very same punishment as the bully?

How can you let the kids filming and commentating from the sidelines go unpunished?  Talk about enablers!

How can the school not accept some of the blame for the lack of adequate supervision and providing an environment where such bullying exists.  If the film hadn’t been shot, there probably wouldn’t have been any punishments.  How can this happen in an age where there is a higher level of bullying awareness?

Below is the link to the video.  I must warn you it is not for the squeamish.

http://video.heraldsun.com.au/1841676941/Shocking-school-fight-video

Suspended for 4 days?  Seriously?  The school should have closed down for 4 days, and made to use that time to reflect on its core values.

The Downside of Facebook

March 9, 2011

The benefits of Facebook are obvious and invaluable.  However, it is clear that like every other innovation, the bad comes with the good.  Facebook connects you to places and people all over the world, it allows you to promote yourself, your business and interact with more people than you otherwise would.  But it also has the potential of getting you in trouble:

Recently there was the case of Natalie Munroe who became a hero in some quarters for blunt comments she made of her students on her Facebook page.

Now we have a very disappointing case that once again acts as a cautionary tale of Facebook misuse:

A 13-year old Georgia girl is facing expulsion and relocation to an “alternative school” after she called one of her teachers a pedophile on Facebook. The girl, Alejandra Sosa, and two of her classmates who commented on the post must now go before a disciplinary tribunal for what Chapel Hill Middle School calls a “level one” offense: the worst category of transgression in the student handbook. Sosa posted the message because she was angry with her teacher, but said it was intended as a joke. She claims that she now regrets posting it, and understands that what she did was wrong.

The parents of the three students, though upset with their kids’ behavior, think the school and its principal, Jolene Morris, have gone too far. Sosa claims that Morris took her to the school’s library after catching wind of the post. She claims the principal then demanded she log into her Facebook account; she then took the keyboard and mouse from the student to read through her Wall posts, before telling Sosa to delete the messages. The father of William Lambert, one of the other students implicated in the incident, says that Morris also violated his son’s privacy by demanding that Sosa log into her Facebook account; Lambert had called the teacher a rapist in a comment on Sosa’s original post.

The parents all believe that sending the children to a school for students with behavioral problems will ultimately derail their education. Sosa is an honor student, and Taylor’s mother worries that putting the children in that environment is tantamount to telling them to “[be] in a gang and do drugs.” The parents have banded together to obtain the services of a lawyer. If the tribunal decides on expulsion and alternative schools, the case could wind up in the courts.

Gerry Weber, an adjunct professor of civil rights at Georgia State University, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that while online comments are subject to libel laws, they’re also protected under the First Amendment. The schools do not have the jurisdiction to punish students for “off-campus speech,” he said, unless the comments can be proven to have caused an on-campus “disruption.” The principal’s decision to access Sosa’s Facebook account could also play to the students’ favor in court proceedings, as it may be seen as a violation of the child’s privacy.

I know there aren’t many that will agree with me, but falsely accusing a teacher of being a pedophile in a public forum is worthy of expulsion.  I know she is a child and didn’t properly think through her actions, but there is no worse label to give a teacher than that one.  Her parents should stop defending her and let her cop her punishment.  It is about time that kids take responsibility for their actions.  If they are old enough to have a Facebook page, then they are old enough to accept accountability for its misuse.  Her parents need to tell her that while the penalty may seem harsh, it is a fair one.  One that will hopefully get her to think before she slanders another person.

And perhaps, there is a lesson there for all of us with our Facebook pages.  Facebook is there to connect us with others not to divide us.

The Heroic Life of a Selfless Teacher

March 4, 2011

If there is something one can get out of the absolutely tragic story of a teacher who drowns in trying to rescue his students, it is the selflessness of teachers, heroically displayed by maths and science teacher Paul Simpson.

A schoolteacher has drowned in an apparent attempt to save his students from a rip at the notorious Bells Beach.

The man, believed to be aged in his 30s, died yesterday while supervising a group of Year 11 and 12 students from Shelford Girls Grammar, in Melbourne’s east.

The girls, aged about 15 years, had been snorkelling at 4.30pm when wild surf and a rip tide turned conditions dangerous.

The group of 19 students and three adults had been walking in knee- to waist-deep water on a reef when a wave knocked them off their feet and into deeper water, Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said.

Police said it was believed the teacher had been trying to rescue the girls before he drowned.

Paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him on the shore of the surf beach near Torquay, 105km southeast of Melbourne.

Several teenagers had to be rescued from the water. One received treatment for an asthma attack. Others had minor injuries.

The distressed students, who were in shock, had to be helped to make their way back up the beach to a car park to be taken back to their camp at Torquay.

The teacher is question works at a school within walking distance of my home.  His bravery and unflinching desperation to rescue his students shows us what sacrifices a brilliant teacher can make for the safety and security of his students.  I extend my condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and students.  May his brief but meaningful life inspire others to strive to make selfless decisions whilst looking out for others.

If you have some time I encourage you to read tributes written by his former students on a special Facebook page dedicated to the memory of this incredible person.