Learning - Thinking - Playing

Approach to Content Filtering in the Home

The other day I was presenting an online safety session to a group of parents from a primary school. The session was good although the numbers in attendance was a little disappointing given the serious nature of the conversation, however the questions and discussion after the sessions was very worthwhile and interesting. One of the points that was discussed was the idea of content filters on home computers. Recently the past Liberal Federal Government had set aside around $60 million for the development and deployment of content filters to homes for parents to apply.

The problem with this solution is that:

• Most parents are unaware of the issue
• Most parents would not know how to manage and install the software
• Children could easily get around the software or
• Children could go somewhere else and access the internet without any filtering thereby defeating the purpose of the content filter
• Parents were placed under a false sense of security in that the filters were protecting their children, when in fact they could get around it if they really wanted or they could go elsewhere.
• This false sense of security also leads parents to letting their children have a computer in a bedroom rather than an open public space within the house. This is a major no-no, by having the computer in a public space means that children are more likely to be involved in appropriate activities rather than inappropriate activities. Being in a public environment also means that parents can engage in conversation with there children about what they are doing online - this is an important step.
• A system like this treats our children as if we can not trust them firstly - rather than building trust and respect.

The results of the program and uptake of the content filter system was extremely poor to say the least.

What would have been more appropriate would have been the development of a system that parents could put on their computers that would log all the websites and activities that their children undertake online - recording Chat, websites visited, software downloaded and used. If this record was protected by a password that only parents had then this would enable children the opportunity to act responsibly with trust with the knowledge that mum or dad could look at what has been going on. A system like this changes the dynamics for our children - we can talk and educate them about being responsible whilst still having the ability to check if that responsibility has been abused. And in the event of a cyberbullying problem there could be easy and simply was to identify where issue start and develop.

A model like this would have more chance of succeeding in our community and with widespread application would help build knowledge, skill and resilience in our children. Unfortunately most parents do not see this as a major issue yet and so either have no interest, knowledge or understanding of what is happening.

Just my thoughts following the discussion last week.

Internet Safety Day 10th Feb 2009 - Did you notice this day?

2009 and it is Feb already - where has the year gone. I have always tried to make the commitment to get to my blog on a regular basis, well it has been a long time and I plan to make up for it. I thought I would start today as it is Internet Safety Day. Here in Australia the day has been overshadowed a little by the terrible fires that have occurred in my home state of Victoria, with such terrible loss of life. Too be honest the day has been overshadowed by a whole range of things least not the fact that parents and teachers have very little knowledge of what our children do online nor what experiences they have had.

The issue of internet safety is a very important one and one that needs constant review and discussion. I have talked about this topic a lot over a long period of time, running a large number of sessions with schools, students, parents and teachers - from it all I am always stunned by the lack of real interest or involvement in this area. So from me I ask that today if you are a parent please take the time to sit down with your child/ren and ask what they do online, talk about being safe online and what that might look like and if they come across something that makes them uncomfortable get them to talk to you. If you are a teacher of students - set aside some time to talk about the internet and what your students do, find out if they are being smart online and making smart decision and if there parents are involved with their online life.

Do these activites just once this week and again in a couple of weeks time - if we do not make talking about online safety a priority and a part of normal life then we will have some interesting issues in the years to come.

The following links provide a little more information about the day:

Safer Internet Day

Cyber Smart Kids information

Cyber Bullying - 60 Minutes farce

Last night on the Australian 60 Minutes there was a story on Cyber Bullying. While this is an important issue and needs more public discussion and eduction last nights show was a very poor attempt to discuss and raise this issue, it was something more akin to the typical TodayTonight and A Current Affair offerings.

One of the things that I am starting to change my mind on relates to a statement made at the start of the show that said " student know way more than we do" meaning adults/parents. While this off hand remark would have everyone nodding, my recent experiences in schools (secondary) is that the majority of student certainly know a lot more than their parents about the online world, and they certainly do not have the fear or trepidation when trying new things or communicating with others online. But student do lack the skills and knowledge to successfully communicate with people - they are missing the knowledge and information to ensure that they know how to be a successful and responsible cyber citizens. Last nights show really missed a good opportunity, but was expected given the shock/horror approach taken by these shows today.

If I were to guess, it will not be too long before we see a panel session on 60 Minutes with so called experts talking about Cyber Bullying and the growing epidemic. Lets just make sure we make the most of the opportunity.

As an parent and teacher we need to be talking to our children/students and ensuring that they have the knowledge of how to act online - and that means parents taking the time to spend time with your children. Nothing new, nothing magical but something very special.

Online Safety - Growing Up Online Video

As I prepare for a presentation tomorrow at a large metropolitan Melbourne school I have been thinking and developing my slides and information. not that I don't know it but that I have a passion for sharing and exploring the issues we as educators face and getting the message right is very important especially when speaking to 250+ people.

I came across the following site/video which is a must watch for all teachers, parents and anyone involved with students or children going online. The video was released last week in the US on the PBS network as part of the Frontline program. Growing Up Online explores a large number of issues about students growing up online and the challenges that everyone face from parents to teachers and most importantly students.

There are teacher notes coming in Feb and these should be useful, the website as a whole has lots of information and links and provides a lot of good useful information. It is important to note that the show does focus on the negative side of going online, and that anyone using or showing clips need to ensure audiences know that going online has a lot of advantages and positives - we just need to get a balance and educate our children and their parents and teachers.

The following are a couple of posts on the video Growing Up Online - they are worth a visit:

Engage or entertain?

FRONTLINE "Growing Up Online"

Online Safety - 2008 Challenges

It is interesting at the moment with the school and summer holidays in full swing (in Australia) and people in a relaxed and laid back frame of mind that the new Federal Government have continued its push to be seen as getting stuck into its polices and promises. One of these areas is the protection of children to online resources - the latest development in this area is the proposal for ISP based filtering as mentioned in the following two articles "Conroy wades into child porn net flood" and "Australia's plans to filter Internet under fire". This proposal has generated a fair amount of discussion online although the impact and discussion for every day Australian's seems to have taken a back seat.

What does a proposal like this mean for the every day person - well the following are some of the positive and negative consequences:

• Protection of our children from inappropriate material (as much as can be provided)
• Gives parents and guardians a false belief that their children are safe online
• ISP and Internet services may be slowed
• If you want to have un-filtered access to  the internet then you may be required to ring up/email and request this access - providing details to a central service for what should be a basic right
• Does not provide a failsafe protection for children as they could potential get access at other locations
• Starts down a path of information access filtering - potential for future restrictions to be added without full consideration.

This is an issue that all need to be aware of and conscious about.

The following blog entry is worth a read - While You Were Out: Australia Makes Plans to Censor the Internet, it makes for some interesting reading.

Finally the 'Clean Feed' system proposed has a few issues "Rudd porn filter fails: experts".

The Facebook Skit

I have just had a great clip from Darrel (the ICTGUY) sent through to me - whilst being a very fun clip about Facebook it does bring out some serious sides to these social environments, especially for our students who need to think before posting photos and information about themselves. Funnily enough there was a great story the other day on the radio from 'Sly of the Underword' about adults that have a problem with posting images - listen to this....Download sly_of_the_underworld.mp3 (thanks 3AW)

If you have not explored these environments - take the step have a look around - sign up and explore a new environment.

ACA - Computer Game Outrage

I am not normally one to pay any attention to Channel 9's ACA program, but tonight's story on "Computer Game Outrage" drew my attention. The basis of the report is that students at a school in northern Queensland have accessed an inappropriate game that involved the player moving around and shooting naked men, if you do not shoot them in time the player is then assaulted. The game is fairly graphic and not one that should be accessible by students.

However there are more issues in this story than just the sensationalism beaten up by ACA. The first issue centres around the idea of content filtering. Like many government and educational jurisdictions the Qld Education Department used software to block sites based on what are called white and black lists. This form of filtering is fairly arbitrary and tends to block a large number of sites that have educational benefit. Content filtering also provides a form of censored Internet experience for both teachers and students - which depending on your view is either a good thing or a bad thing.

I personally believe that what should occur in our schools and educational systems is that Internet access should be monitored rather than filtered, so as students and even teachers uses sites anything that appears to be inappropriate can be flagged and using log on details individuals can be made accountable for their actions and online behaviour. To enable this it means that appropriate log on services need to be established as well as systems that can flag search terms and sites easily and effectively, additional the school should have the capacity to block sites as appropriate rather than just have large blanket blocking procedures. In a school this means that the Internet is still the Internet and that students and teachers can access the vast majority of sites but with ongoing education of all about online responsibilities these issues can be avoided whilst ensuring that everyone is becoming responsible.

"Content filtering simply provides a false mechanism for teachers, schools and education systems to believe that students are being protected from inappropriate materials.

This belief leads to complacency and a lack of ongoing awareness about online responsibilities, a perfect breeding ground for incidents like this one to occur."

Another issues that is raised by this item is that in all Australian schools students should always been in view or close proximity of a teacher (duty of care), the question here is what skills or knowledge did the teachers at the school have in regards to online games and possible inappropriate content, what supervision was being provided, what task were the students involved in how and where were the PC located. These are all important questions that school need to consider, and with an aging teaching workforce with limited ICT skills and online knowledge, staff at the school may not have been provided with appropriate strategies and information around students online activities.

From this item there is also the issue of the schools response to the initial parent s report about the site - what would your school do? What should your school do? An interesting question, but given that this game had been around for a while in a school environment I am sure that many students would have known about the site - from first hand experience these types of things travel around the student population very quickly. The school should possibly have assessed the situation and depending on the level of knowledge in the school population either spoken to the classes involved or the school as a whole and talked about the Internet and that there were inappropriate resources and games out there but that as good online citizens these are not the things they should be playing or visiting. The schools should also have provided a note or details to parents, not just to communicate the issue but to ensure the parents are aware of access to the site on the home PC's where the majority of access would have occurred. This incident would also have provided a good point in time to conduct a parent information evening.

It is just not the school that needs to learn something from this, it is the parents as well - there were comment made that the game is "praying on little boys" how is this so? Girls play these games too and all children should be made aware of such sites. During the item parents spoke about their shock and horror but also that their "children are looking at child pornography" - not so, the game in itself is not child pornography, it is inappropriate YES but there are no pornographic images of children. In report like this the wrong statement presented creates a whole different spin for the viewers.

Finally there was one parent comment "once they have seen it there is nothing you can do about it." - again not true and this is the biggest and most irresponsible part of the report by ACA. These incidents provide an opportunity for schools, teachers and most importantly parents to discuss with their children about being responsible online citizens and being aware of what is appropriate material or not.

ACA could have provided some simple strategies for parents to discuss this type of issue, but like so many of their reports the over the top story is key not the ways to improve societies knowledge or capacity to deal with these situations.

Tags: Cybersafety online media Queensland schools education Australia