Whose responsibility is it to teach students to be safe online? (April 12, 2009)

This week's class on cyberbullying was eye opening to me as a relatively new digital immigrant. I was surprised at the ubiquitous nature of the act and the varied forms cyberbullying can take. The website STOP Cyberbullying defines cyberbullying as "when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones." as distinguished from such acts by an adult which are then termed cyber-harassment, cyberstalking or sexual exploitation. The website further states that the "methods used are limited only by the child's imagination and access to technology" and common forms cyberbullying take include:
1. Instant Messaging/Text Messaging Harassment
2. Stealing Passwords
3. Blogs
4. Web Sites
5. Sending Pictures through E-mail and Cell Phones
6. Internet Polling
7. Interactive Gaming
8. Sending Malicious Code
9. Sending Porn and Other Junk E-Mail and IMs
10. Impersonation
And these are only the common forms that direct attacks take, for examples of cyberbullying by proxy see the website.
Of interest to our class, the website also states that "When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right." The site then goes on to say, "Schools can be very effective brokers in working with the parents to stop and remedy cyberbullying situations. They can also educate the students on cyberethics and the law. ...We recommend that a provision is added to the school's acceptable use policy reserving the right to discipline the student for actions taken off-campus if they are intended to have an effect on a student or they adversely affect the safety and well-being of student while in school. This makes it a contractual, not a constitutional, issue." As for the home, the website states that "Parents need to be the one trusted place kids can go when things go wrong online and offline. Yet they often are the one place kids avoid when things go wrong online."

The essential question of the week is then, "Whose responsibility is it to teach students to be safe online?" whether it be from cyberbullying, . My answer would be in the form of a now famous African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" and I would add that for me the proverbial village includes the child as well. Children as well as the villagers (parents, siblings and other family members; teachers, counselors and school administrators; churches and other community organizations; police, lawyers and policy makers; an online communities and industries) need to take personal responsibility for educating today's children, digital citizens fluent in media literacy, about how to protect their own and others online safety. The focus should be on education, on learning, not on punishing and policing. What we need are collective collaborative solutions where digital citizenship and responsibility are promoted and modeled by all villagers such that awareness is raised, teachable moments are taken advantage of, and critical thinking, ethics and behavior (values and character), and media literacy are taught in our schools to the benefit of the well-being and safety of all members of society.

I would like to end this blog with a quote, "Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” (STOP Cyberbullying website)