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More and more school districts are passing policies that forbid teachers from interacting with their students via social networking web sites.  We have written about this before, but the movement seems to be gaining traction.  This is a slippery slope and a challenging issue for all involved.

A policy recently adopted by the Elmbrook School District (Brookfield, WI) bans all communication between students and staff on social networking web sites and instant messaging applications.  What’s interesting about this district’s approach, is that according to reports, the original version of the proposed policy would have “banned district staff from using text messaging, instant messaging and social networking altogether, even personally while off the clock.”  Are you kidding me?  I suppose the next action the Board will take is to pass is a policy forbidding teachers to listen to that “rock and roll” music?!?

Personally I think this kind of a policy is ridiculous.  Adolescents hang out in these environments and increasingly so do many adults (especially younger adults).  This is akin to saying that teachers aren’t allowed to talk to students they see in the mall or elsewhere in the community.  Are they just supposed to ignore them?  Why stifle the development of a positive relationship between a teacher and a student?  I think this is particularly true among older students, as the teacher begins to transform into more of a mentor than a superior.  What happens when the students graduate? Can they communicate with alums?  What if their own children are in their school?

Adults need to recognize that this is the way youth communicate these days.  They don’t pick up the phone and call.  They don’t really even email that much anymore.  They text and they message using Facebook and MySpace.  They increasingly Twitter.  If adults want to talk to kids, this is how they are going to have to do it.  It can open up lines of communication previously not available.

I know of many teachers who utilize social networking sites in a positive way to interact with their students.  For example, they post student art and creative writing or interesting articles or books that relate to topics discussed in the classroom.  Why punish them for the inappropriate actions of a select few?   Instead of banning their use, why not focus on teaching both staff and students how to use them responsibly?  Both need to recognize the boundaries and keep the discussion/interaction professional.

I could be way off base on this, and am certainly open to your thoughts.  Is this another example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater or are there genuine concerns here that are impossible to deal with using other methods?

One of our good friends and fellow Internet Safety advocates Anne Collier (co-author of MySpace Unraveled) recently did a presentation on Second Life.  By that, I don’t mean the topic was Second Life (an online virtual reality world in which people interact with each other via avatars), but she, through her avatar, gave a presentation about “Internet Safety 2.0″ in that virtual world.  It is fascinating stuff and she did a really good job.  I encourage you to check it out if you want a no-nonsense primer on the real dangers that adolescents face while online.  You can check out more of Anne’s great work on her blog.

As you may know, Facebook recently altered its Terms of Service, essentially stating that they own all of the content that you (the user) upload to their site.  This includes content that you’ve uploaded but then later removed, and your content after you have chosen to delete your account.  The Terms of Service in other popular social networking and interactive Web 2.0 sites tend to indicate that you still own your content when you upload/post/share in their environment.  Today, Facebook has decided to go back to its original Terms of Service while they wrestle with some of the issues and outcry that have resulted from their intended change.  This reversal is a good thing.  I think we have to remember that Facebook is a private entity intent on making a profit (somehow!) in the months and years to come.  While we all use the site and benefit from the ability to have a virtual representation of ourselves online to connect with others, there may come a time when we must pay a cost for that benefit.  This cost may leave us without full charge of the information we have chosen to share (or have shared) with others – and this might come around to keep us from an opportunity, get us in trouble, or otherwise bring us embarrassment or harm.  Sometimes I think that with all of the privacy settings we modify and adjust for our text content, pictures, and videos (and Facebook has so many settings!), we are lured into a false sense of security related to what we truly control. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, especially if you use Facebook frequently….

There was an article published in the New York Times last week which discussed the case of Katherine Evans.  Katherine was displeased with her high school English teacher and posted about this displeasure on Facebook: “To those select students who have had the displeasure of having Ms. Sarah Phelps, or simply knowing her and her insane antics: Here is the place to express your feelings of hatred.”

Katherine apparently removed the post only after a few days, but a couple of months later was suspended by her school for “cyberbullying.”  [point of order: we typically do not refer to online harassment involving an adult as cyberbullying]  From the media reports, Katherine’s actions neither constituted a threat nor resulted in a disruption at school—the two common features of cyberbullying incidents that would warrant a significant formal response from the school.   Did Katherine cross the line?   Without question her actions were inappropriate.  Were they subject to discipline at school?  Maybe—but probably not suspension.  Students are allowed to criticize teachers and other school officials, again, as long as it is not threatening or disruptive to the school.  This can be a fine line indeed.  It will be interesting to see how the courts rule in this case.  My gut is telling me that the school could have handled this case differently, but I’m sure we do not have all of the details yet.  Stay tuned.

This story out of New Berlin, WI, reports about very extreme case of cyberbullying.  It is reported that an 18-year-old male student posed as a female student on Facebook and tricked other male students into sending him nude pictures or videos of themselves.  There were at least 31 male students who apparently did so, and the offender in this case also reportedly coerced several of them to engage in sexual acts with him by threatening that he would post the pictures online and/or send them to others in the school.

We have certainly heard more and more stories lately of teens taking naked pictures of themselves or others and distributing them electronically.  Like anything, it is important to educate students about the risks inherent in engaging in these kinds of activities.  For example, teens all around the country are being charged with possession or distribution of child pornography for these behaviors–not to mention the social implications associated with this.  By the way, here is a short, but humorous video that can be used to educate youth about this phenomenon.