Since it's founding in 1997, the CYC-Net discussion group has been asked thousands of questions. These questions often generate many replies from people in all spheres of the Child and Youth Care profession and contain personal experiences, viewpoints, as well as recommended resources.
Below are some of the threads of discussions on varying Child and Youth Care related topics.
Questions and Responses have been reproduced verbatim.
Listen to thisI was just doing a bit of research on online safety and found some websites
with some links. Our youth are getting access to internet more frequently
and at younger ages it seems, and I thought some of these might be useful
for anyone working with youth that have regular access to internet. I hope
this helps some of you.
For my question, what are some of your ideas for giving awareness on
internet safety, and how do you feel about the kids using the internet in
your presence? How closely do you watch what they're doing, and do you allow
chatrooms, msg boards, social networking, etc?
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=e
n_US&PageId=4307
http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/safety-tips-tweens-teens.aspx
(I think this might be the best because it talks about social networking
like myspace and facebook)
http://tcs.cybertipline.com/situations.htm
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=e
n_US&PageId=200
And some youtube PSAs about content people post on the internet without even
knowing..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOUu1fldBbI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w4_Hrwh2XI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ_f7yOAzPU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdQBurXQOeQ&feature=related
Adam LeMoine
...
Thanks to Adam for some helpful websites and the
question on internet safety ...
I suppose the first question is how old are the individuals you are asking
about? If they are youth, then there should be limits as to how much
time they spend on the computer, as well as what they engage in on the
computer. As for kids...is it really necessary to allow chat rooms, MSN etc?
I think it is important to limit internet access and to prevent chat rooms.
Firstly, it doesn't promote social aspects of behaviour and secondly, as you
stated, it's not safe.
I have teenagers....an effective way is to have the local police liaise
officer attend the classrooms to explain the dangers of the internet and the
creeps who may prey on children. This was done last week at one of my
children's school and it was extremely effective. I think it's
effective because we, as parents/caregivers may not understand all the
implications of the internet. Here's an example: The police
officer explained to the teens to always turn the computer camera away from
them when they are online, as creepers can download a program to your
computer via Bit Torrent, Facebook, and many others that allows them to see
the person on the computer via the camera without the individual realizing
this!!!!! One more bit of information I learned through my youth was
that there is also a website that creepers have designed called "fuckbook,"
which happens to imitate Facebook.
So it looks just like Facebook, but when you log into your Facebook account,
you can't get in, so you re-enter your user name and password and boom...the
creeper now has your username and password!!!!
Brigitte LeBlanc
...
Adam,
I work at an after school program and at times I am sent to monitor the
computer room. Although I do not personally agree with all the rules of the
program I do follow them. Facebook, Youtube, myspace and any similar sites
are blocked from use. The staff have encountered problems with children
talking about inappropriate content on the site or have looked up
inappropriate videos and therefore have blocked everything. The staff seem
to believe that if one child misbehaves they take the privilege away from
all children.
I personally feel that some of the sites can be very useful for children.
Facebook and Myspace can provide children with an opportunity to learn what
is socially acceptable and how to interact with their peers. Although there
are some videos on Youtube that are not appropriate for all children there
are also educational and humorous videos. I think it depends on the setting
the children are in that determines what should be allowed.
However I do feel that supervision is important with internet use. Even
growing up, the computer was in our downstairs living room so that one of my
parents would be around when we were using the computer. Not necessarily
standing and watching over our shoulder but they were present and aware of
what we were doing on the computer.
I hope you figure out how to best use computers and the internet in your
child and youth work!
Sarah
Pennsylvania
...
Theage group using the computer is about 12-16.We don't have anyone younger or older really. But I agreethat it should be supervised. Most of them only use it to look up things on Youtube... which usually ends upgetting turned off by a worker due to the amount of swearing.I'm pretty good with computers and internet safety though, and this one girl is always on Facebook. She actually uses a different name and ended up adding me.
Didn't even realize it was her, which was dangerous for both of us. Anyway.At one point, I was sitting at the table where I'm able to view the computer screen and I caught her on Omegle giving her first name and even what province shelives in. I gave her a speech about it and thought that we should definitely get some internet safety classes here. It's ascary place, and the lack of knowledge in a lot of the people using it makes it worse.
I'd be morecomfortable if they weren't allowed to use
Facebook and only have supervised (closely supervised) msn use. Chatrooms
just aren't needed.
Adam LeMoine
