I’ve just read Alec Couras’ new post where he talks about the Australian kid who threw a huge party while his parents were out. The boy involved posted information about the party on his Myspace page and havoc ensued when 500 young people turned up. He’s now being offered up to $10,000 by an entertainment company to organise parties while the police are threatening to charge him $20,000 in damages and related costs. What is amazing to me is that I’ve just returned home from our local beach where I met up with friends, one of whom had taught this particular boy when he was younger. Our flat world is getting flatter by the minute!
This is a teachable moment for our students regarding use of the internet. I try and talk to the students at my school about keeping their Myspace pages private and not public. Some of the most powerful lessons I was involved with last year happened when I used the ‘Think before you post’ commercials that can be accessed from Youtube. They certainly helped get the message across that you need to carefully consider the photos you upload to spaces on the Web.
The NetSmartz Teens site offers some great videos on internet safety and social networking sites:
http://www.nsteens.org/videos/social-networking/
Look under teaching materials do download.
Great blog, btw!
Hi Lesley,
Thanks for the link – I’ll use those videos in my teaching this year. Thanks also for the positive comment about the blog – you’re my first comment from someone who hasn’t been notified about my blogs existence – I’m rapt! How did you find it?