Sexting
Its not suprising really, when you think about it. The cell phone, which is an extension of some many of our students brains, is potentially being used for SEXTING!!!
What is Sexting? Well have a look at the wikipedia article on it (yes it is suitable and not in any way shape or form inappropriate) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexting Its interesting that they have cited incidence in NZ as well as the US and UK.
In the US students/kids are being charged with pornography charges and convicted, because they are sexting. The impact of this is potentially devastating – how many countries will refuse entry to someone convicted of sex crimes? How many companies will refuse to employ? How many doors like teaching, police, etc are now closed?
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7224596
But it does not end there, Bullying resulting from sexting is claiming lives as young people are stressed and harassed to the point where they feel that suicide is there only way out.
Here are some sexting stats
“The percent of teenagers who have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves:
- 20% of teenagers overall
- 22% of teen girls
- 18% of teen boys
- 11% of young teen girls ages 13-16
The percent of teenagers sending or posting sexually suggestive messages:
- 39% of all teenagers
- 37% of teen girls
- 40% of teen boys“
Source: http://www.pcsndreams.com/Pages/Sexting_Statistics.html
Obviously we can not BAN Cell Phones. Sexting is not limited to schools, so Banning a cell phone at school just slightly restricts the time taken to send the message.
Prosecutions, will do little except ruin the lives of some individuals, and I must ask for what benefit?
What is needed is UNDERSTANDING by the students/teens of what this is and what the consequences are? But students and teens are not alone here, parents too must be educated.
The kids need to know that our digital foot prints are permenant, and that the image they share with their girlfriend or boyfriend is not a private moment between just them but potentially a public display to their friends, peers, families and beyond.
I wonder how many realise this after they have clicked send? Unsend on a cell phone?
April 16th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Just goes to show – you’ve never seen everything! Perhaps it is because we live in such a disposable world that young people have difficulty grasping the concept of permanence. I discussed the idea of a digital footprint with my class, and it was clearly not something they had ever thought about. And they start making that footprint before they are old enough to really appreciate the future ramifications of it.
About educating parents – how do we go about this as teachers? What is best practice here, other than keeping them informed about what we’re doing in our own classes? Should schools run evening sessions on digital citizenship? Hmmm…
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April 16th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
This is far too big for schools to handle and parents have to assume responsibility for this one at least. We have found ourselves running parenting pressos from time to time and the resources from the PBS Frontline material has provided helpful starting places when working with parents. There are way too many parents out there who still have not stopped to work through what are the real issues confronting their digital kids.
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April 17th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Hi Craig and Dorothy,
I completely agree – but how do we educate parents. The internet and its safety has fallen into out laptops by default as its a tool we use at school. But cell phones – thats a different matter.
How many schools have tried and failed to ban cell phones? You may as well try to stop the tides. Most schools still have a “discourage” policy regarding cell phones, partly because we have seen fights videoed, teachers baited etc.
Like every technology there is a dark side and cell phones are no different. People do tend to ignore the good side of cell phones and focus on the more attention grabbing aspects of abuse. I suspect that 99% or higher of cell phone use is appropriate, benefical and positive or at worst nuetral.
Like the internet I think the answer lies in the 3I rule for the internet – parents need to be…
-informed
-interested
-In view
This is a little harder with these highly mobile technologies, but it does come back to establishing a good basis of trust with your son or daughter.
Cheers
A
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April 18th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Great post Andrew, and great responses from Craig and Dorothy
We have also run parent info sessions from time to time and we are now finding that we need to ‘up the anti’ somewhat in this area.
Our digital safety work (www.fendalton.school.nz/digitalsafety.php) sets up the expectation that this is a shared responsibility – however that in itself doesn’t help with parents who are even further behind (in some cases) than teachers themselves.
I suspect that many schools are way behind in this area as they are in the general use of web2/social tools to support learning.
I view digital safety as partly being about ethical and responsible use, partly about keeping oneself safe and partly about best practice – ie. using digital tools to support your learning/life in ways that make a difference.
I’d be interested in your thoughts.
Rob
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andrewch Reply:
April 18th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Hi Rob,
I am looking at putting together a presentation on the whole concept of digital citizenship for ulearn down in christchurch. I am at the sketching out Ideas stage but I am going to push it out via the blog.
If schools are behind (and I agree with you many many are) then parents haven’t even made it to the start line yet.
In a world where what we teach (Knowledge in the secondary curriculum) is obsolete within years, and many of the jobs our students graduate into are not even invented yet. Our greatest “gift” or gifts we can impart on our students are
The love of learning
Critical thinking
Adaptability and flexibilty
Values
These are the things that I believe will stay with them long beyond the knowledge they learn.
Digital citizenship fits into Values and also critical thinking too
Cheers
A
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