Disney to overhaul website. Again.

Looks like Disney will revamp its website to pull in more traffic. Interestingly they’re setting up their video feed much like Youtube, because “kids had grown accustomed to viewing Web video in that manner.” I can't wait to see the changes. Disney has always maintained a safe site for kids. Let’s hope they keep it that way.

Facebook

Facebook is very similar to Myspace and shares many features, so I won’t make you read through those again. Rather, I’ll briefly discuss the main differences between Facebook and Myspace and give you a description of the features that are unique to Facebook.

The biggest difference between Facebook and Myspace is the layout and background design of your “space.” Myspace allows its users to manipulate the HTML code and have a background as creative or cluttered as you like. Facebook requires the clean, blue and white look for every user, and in my opinion this makes Facebook more user-friendly.

Like Myspace you have a contact section, a school section, and a personal section that allows you to put your favorite quotes, movies, books, television shows. It has an “about me” space for self-description, a work section, a place to put your gender, sexual orientation and relationship and religious statuses.

You can add photo albums and tag friends in these photos and add videos.

The Wall:
It also has a comments section, but on Facebook it’s your “wall.” Recently due to the popularity of the site, Facebook added a “top friends” application, but this does not come automatically on your page, you must download it.

Applications:
Applications are worth mentioning, because they are a recent addition to the Facebook brand. They are almost limitless and include anything from “stickers” (or little sayings or pictures like you’d buy in a coin machine,) to a game called Zombies and Vampires where you bite your friends to turn them into a Zombie or Vampire. It's very strange and not very interesting.

You can make a lot of money designing an application that people use. You can also buy gifts for people that will appear on their profile. They cost $1 and basically consist of an icon stored on someone’s profile page with a little note from the sender. I know this all seems a bit ridiculous, but remember try not to judge.

Notes:
The blog section in Facebook is called “Notes,” so you publish Notes instead of blog entries. There is no bulletin section, however you can post articles or videos from news websites or Youtube that you find interesting.

Newsfeed:
Facebook first had the newsfeed section, which users initially hated but have since come to love. This section essentially makes it easier to find out what your friends are doing. Every time a facebook friend updates his/her profile, is “tagged” (remember what tag means?) in a picture, or writes on someone’s wall, you know about it. It seems a bit stalkerish, right? But that’s the point of Facebook and Myspace in a lot of ways.

In fact, I would even go so far as to say this generation has changed the meaning of the verb and noun stalk/stalker to something far less sinister. At least that’s what they want to think.

Chat:
The latest feature on Facebook is the chat feature. You can now instant message friends that are signed into their Facebook account at the same time you are.

The point? Facebook and Myspace change daily, they add new applications, try out new features. To keep up with it you must be vigilant.

The Poke:
Another kind of silly feature of Facebook is the poke. The poke is an option that allows you to virtually “poke” (with your virtual finger) a Facebook friend. Again, this is something I can’t really explain to you, but it is a feature worth noting.

Safety and Privacy:
Unlike Myspace Facebook does not have an intense safety tips section. In fact, there is no safety section, only a privacy page. Again, I believe this is because younger teens and tweens tend to choose Myspace over Facebook and because many of the headline news stories occurred on Myspace, not Facebook. They’ve managed to stay out of the media, for the most part.

The privacy settings are easy to use and easy to set, but you have to set individual preferences about who can see your profile, your pictures, your videos all separately. You can also choose limited profile for your friends, like for example if you’re friends with a co-worker or employee and you only want him/her to see your basic profile but not your wall, photos, etc.

Next post will cover two social networking sites for the pre-tween, under 12 age group!

Social Networking Sites

Today’s safety topic will begin to cover social networking sites. There’s a lot of debate as to whether these sites serve any purpose or simply create more safety problems. I’m not going to get into the social reasons behind social networking in this post, and they are fascinating, but I’ll cover the basics.

Let me begin by saying if your child is under the age of 14 he/she should not have a Myspace or Facebook account. There are, however, many appropriate social networking sites for younger kids, which I will discuss in detail. I’m going look at each site specifically and tell you what features they have and what they allow people to do while on them. Quite often I get the question, “why would you want to put up for the whole world to see pictures of Fill-In-The-Blank?” and again, I’ll have to tackle that in another post.

Myspace.comRequirements:
A working e-mail address, 14+ years of living

What if offers:
A "space” to put the following information:
A “name” of your choosing, for instance “HopeprefersFacebook”
A quote of your choosing, mine is from E.E. Cummings, “unbeing dead isn’t being alive” (Cryptic,right?)
Your age
About Me section (Who are you, some are very creative)
Who I’d Like to Meet section (Some people put dead philosophers, some put Paris Hilton.)
An Interests section that includes these subcategories: General, Music, Movies, Television, Books, Heroes

“Details” section:
Your sexual orientation, your relationship status, your thoughts on children (i.e. do you want them, do you have them etc.), Why you are on myspace (to meet friends, to date, etc.) Religious preference, Ethnicity, Body Type (It gets a little ridiculous here,) education, occupation, income (!!!), your zodiac sign, do you smoke/drink.

Top Friends Section:
This section is oh-so-important for the social status of high school and junior high students as it is a way to publicly express who your “favorite,” bestest friends are, for the whole world to see. Reputations are made and broken based on the “top eight.”

In addition to the basic features, users are also able to add features like picture slide shows, custom backgrounds (a major difference between myspace and facebook), and other applications to their pages. Applications are unlimited and include anything from a countdown to your birthday or wedding, a quote-of-the-day from Einstein, or karaoke!

You also have a pictures and video section, separate from your main page. Myspace users create albums, which they can share with friends, keep private, or “tag” other Myspace users in the pictures. To tag someone in a picture means that you label them in that particular photograph.

Comments Section:
This section, like the top friends section, is also important to the fragile social statuses of our teens and tweens. Comments simply mean that other myspace users can comment on your page. A typical comment conversation may look like this: “Hey, how R U? I haven’t seen u in 4EVR!” To which that person responds on their wall, “I’m gr8! How R U?” And so on and so forth. Again, you’re probably wondering what is the point of having a public conversation, and all I can say (for now) is it’s a way to publicly establish who your friends are.

Blog:
We haven’t touched on blogs yet, but now is as good a time as ever. What you’re reading right now is a blog, which is short for weblog, and is the Internet equivalent of a journal or diary. Blogs have entries organized by dates with the latest entry at the top of the screen.

Blogs can be about anything from politics to weddings, to a new baby, I’ve seen them all. Generally speaking, they are meant to bring knowledge about a particular subject into one "location," and can serve as an excellent way to sift through the huge amount of information out there today. Myspace accounts also have a blog option.

Generally people post new or changing information about their lives. Like for example if you get a new job, you post a blog entry about it. Another purpose of the myspace blog is ranting. Do you hate when people fill-in-the-blank? Well why don’t you blog about it?

My Bulletin Space:
The bulletin space is unique to Myspace. It serves as a virtual bulletin board where myspace users post information, which then is available to their entire Myspace network.

Most often these bulletins do not contain any “useful information,” however if you’re an artist you can place your show schedules and c.d. release information.

Most often bulletins are “surveys,” like the ones that used to be popular with e-mail. These surveys ask all sorts of random question and are mostly used to pass time when users are bored. I know it’s hard, but try not to make any judgments about the huge amount of wasted time kids spend on here; it won’t convince them to stop using it.

Groups, Events, Etc.:
Another feature of many social networking sites is groups and events. You can create a group based on characteristics that make you similar to other users. I belong to a Livingston High School Class of 2001 group and we will use this group to plan our reunion in a few years. Groups are neat because they can link people together based on their interests.

In addition to groups you can create events. This is sort of like the virtual equivalent to birthday party invitations. Say you’re having a volunteering event you can invite certain friends, groups, or your entire network to this event.

Safety and Privacy features:
Myspace has really increased safety and privacy features in the wake of events such as Megan Meier’s suicide and other cases involving users’ Myspace pages. In addition to a Privacy page, they now also offer a Safety Tips page with- get this- safety videos!

These videos are aimed at parents and cover a variety of issues such as phishing scams, how to create or delete a myspace account, and a PSA on cyberbullying from the Ad Council (See my blog post 5/23.) They also have a Q&A session and a video about monitoring and accountability software.

If you are under 18 on Myspace, your privacy settings are automatically set so that no one can see your profile unless they’re your friend. Along those same lines, no one over 18 years of age can search for myspace users under 18 years of age and vice versa. This is Myspace’s way of deterring online solicitation.

For Parents:
This specific section is for parents and educators and here myspace talks about why kids have myspace pages as well as some positive things that are happening through social networks. They also talk about cyberbullying and give parents a way to contact Myspace.

In addition they created two pdf handouts for school administrators and parents that I’ll put on our website.

I’ve noticed that generally speaking, Myspace is much better about communicating with parents and educators than Facebook is. I wonder if this is because younger children seem to use Myspace over Facebook.

Next entry will cover Facebook, and I promise it won’t be nearly as long.

Is the Internet Changing the Way We Think?

I had to begin this week with this fascinating article I found over the weekend from Atlantic called “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?”

We are all well aware of the many complaints about the Internet’s changing our kids’ reading and writing habits. Educators everywhere charge the Internet, along with text messaging, with disrupting our children’s ability to read and write properly.

Much of this is due to the increased demand for speed over accuracy so that “Where are you?” becomes “WHR R U?” or “I’m confused, please explain.” turns into “???”
Convenient, yes, but some educators have even found this net lingo spilling over into school essays and homework assignments.

The Atlantic article, however, adds an entirely new complaint that this quick-paced, convenient tool is changing the way we all think, read and write. The author begins with an anecdote that he can no longer sit down with a long article or book and dedicate the amount of time and brain power necessary to digest the information properly.

Indeed, I’m not sure I’ll finish writing this article in one sitting and certainly I insist on checking my e-mail(s) numerous times while I read, work, or write.
With the rise of attention deficit disorder, not only in children but also in adults, I wonder, like the author, if technology is changing our brains, making us more distracted and destroying our ability to focus on any one task.

On the other side, experts claim that social networking and other technologies like chatting can actually improve children’s writing and creativity skills. We also cannot deny the power of this phenomenal tool to search for and gain knowledge previously unavailable. People have more control over the information they receive and can even contribute to the collective knowledge of our world, an empowering and liberating ability.

Needless to say, much like the printing press changed society, so will the Internet in ways unforeseen but ultimately positive. It’s the growing pains that we’ve got to muddle through, just as all societies have before us. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check my e-mail.

Internet Safety Awareness Month

June is Internet Safety Awareness month, so I want to write a few entries about new safety topics. I’ve divided these entries into the following categories:

Safety Concerns for Elementary Students (the younger crowd)
Safety Concerns for Teens
Safety Concerns for Adults (Yes, we need them, too)

Just to give you a preview of what we'll cover, I have two conference calls set up for the next few days including Security 101 for Your PC put on by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

I'll use a variety of sources, but won't cover cyberbullying in great detail, since I've already done so. Look for these posts throughout this month sprinkled with a few interesting articles and other tidbits of helpful information.

Also, you'll notice I've added a Blog Roll to the right of the screen, which will direct you to blogs (that I use quite frequently) with some of the best information about this crazy Internet world.

Day 2: the Industry Day

During the second day of the conference we really got down to the issue of Cyberbullying.

Executives from Newscorps (who owns Myspace), Facebook, myYearbook.com, Oracle, AOL, Jagex (a British gaming company), Verizon and Girl Ambition fettered questions from Dr. Aftab and her top Teen Angels.

Let me begin by saying there was quite a bit of debate during the Community Day about where the fault lay for these Internet safety problems, the industry, parents, or teachers? Maybe a combination of the three? It seems that people place most of the responsibility between industry and parents. As a result, this first panel from the industry had to answer some pretty tough questions about their role in cyberbullying and Internet safety.

Kudos to these companies for making the effort to increase parent awareness and safety controls in a lawless cyberworld. Many industry leaders held the position that the tools are out there, but parents and kids don’t use them.

One of the biggest challenges they face is how to police the Internet without violating first amendment rights. What role can and should schools play in what happens outside of schools and off campus?

The second panel consisted of government officials including two FTC commissioners, two sheriffs including one from Polk County, Florida, made infamous for a cyberbullying incident, employees from NY attorney general’s office, and many other state and local government officials from across the country.

Interestingly both sheriffs stated they don’t want these cases to ever reach them, they don’t want to make criminals out of kids and so the question arises, is this behavior merely inappropriate or is it illegal?

My analysis on the conference:
A law or mandate of some sort concerning cyberbullying, Internet safety, and schools will be passed in states in the next few years.
Perhaps a federal law or mandate will also be passed.
Industry will vamp up security controls and parental features and people will continue to find ways around them.
Campaigns and curricula will be developed to increase awareness of the issues surrounding the Internet.
The law will try and catch up with the technology.

I pose another question to conclude this post: When these children become parents themselves, will these problems still exist or will we merely have new problems, new ways to bully, new ways to commit crimes again children?

After lunch, we broke into three groups: one for kids, one for educators (my group) and one for everybody else.
The purpose of these groups was to come up with questions/concerns for the Industry Day
(Day 2).

The wish list for the educators group included finding funding for professional development programs and character education. Many teachers felt that with their current workloads and standards incorporating anti-cyberbullying into their material was practically impossible.

I think this emphasizes a major problem with all Internet safety issues. Whose responsibility is it to teach it?

The conference ended with much discussion and hope for Day 2 at Pace University in downtown New York City.

On another note, I navigated two subways and Grand Central Station to get to White Plains from upper eastside Manhattan by myself and I’m quite proud.

Interenational Cyberbullying Conference

I did not get a chance to post while during the conference, but what a fantastic event. The Community Day (day 1) took place in Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York.

Dr. Aftab is quite the woman and I got there early enough to witness her hard at work leading and directing about 100 adults and kids. I was not expecting to see so many students from the surrounding area, but busload after busload filed into the theatre. To me, as a trainer, this was the best part because I got to hear directly from them.

A particular Teen Angel chapter, which is Dr. Aftab’s organization of kid-experts on Internet Safety issues, led a majority of the conference and I’ve never seen a more articulate, bright and passionate group of kids. They will go on to do great things, I’m sure.

Enough narrative, here’s a breakdown of who was there and what was discussed on Day 1:

Who attended:
Tech and policy directors from Verizon, Microsoft, McAffee, AOL, and more.
Tina Meier and Debbie Johnston (mothers of children who were pushed to suicide from cyberbullying)
About 200 kids including a Teen Angel chapter from a Deaf and Hearing Impaired school (Very cool to see.)
Social workers, school counselors and educators
Representatives from Girl Scouts, Girl Ambition, the Anti-Defamation League, and many more

Questions answered:
1. Why are the cyberbullying numbers from research studies much lower than Dr. Aftab and Teen Angels’ numbers (85% of 45,000 kids)?

Kids don’t know what cyberbullying is.

2. Why don’t kids tell their parents when they’re cyberbullied?

About 30 kids stood up to answer this question. Here are just a few of their answers:
They’re afraid parents will restrict Internet access
They’re embarrassed
Their parents don’t know they talk to strangers online
Their parents don’t know they have a Myspace/Facebook etc.
They don’t want to be monitored any more than they already are
They want to solve their own problems
They don’t want parents judging their friends
(You’re most likely to get cyberbullied by friends)

3. What are some solutions for parents, teachers and kids?

Listen without reacting or punishing
Discuss before it happens
Stop, Block, and Tell

Next entry will continue discussion of the International Cyberbullying conference.