Health & Fitness
Internet Traffic: Is it Time to Teach Rules of the Road?
Driver's education has long been required before a young person gets that coveted licensed. Although many people get their driver's license at an older age, earning a driver's license remains a rite of passage signalling a teenager's entre into a world of greater responsibility. No one would argue against the importance of educating young people about the rules of the road before allowing them to get behind the wheel of a machine that can travel at high rates of speed carrying precious lives inside. The risks are obvious, right?
Yet, do we have the same level of concern when it comes to educating our children about the risks associated with internet use? The dangers are not so obvious, but can have far-reaching consequences, affecting future employment, acceptance at the college of choice, and personal and professional relationships.
For many families, the answer is yes. The growing awareness of the wide range of uses to which our own internet data is being put has been for many parents and caregivers a confirmation that the safeguards they've put in place were born out of well-founded concern. But many people are either unaware of the risks associated with internet use or have failed to educate themselves and their children about the subject.
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Unlike getting a driver's license, which has a predictable horizon (attaining age 16 or 17 for example ) that can be prepared for by parents and new driver alike, in many cases, internet use by children happens incrementally. It often begins by a child visiting gaming or educational sites before widening, over time, into the full range of available sites.
A "license" to Surf?
Before our young people embark upon their inevitable lifelong use of the internet, shouldn't they be required to have a least a minimum amount of knowledge about the consequences-both positive and negative- of simply using the internet? From opening a Facebook account to downloading an app to a smartphone, we are constantly committing (often without knowing) ourselves to disclosing varying amounts of data. By clicking "I Agree" before downloading something, most of us know by now that we are saying "Yes" to a laundry list of conditions dreamed up by marketers, tracking companies, and others who stand to make money off you and your family's internet use.In light of this reality, should there be an "entrance exam", a measurement of one's internet savvy before they begin navigating through and across the limitless bounds of the internet?
If this sounds draconian, hyper-regulatory, or simply like more evidence that we live in an all- too protective Nanny-state, consider that everything we do online is tracked, recorded, stored, data-crunched, converted, sliced, diced and julienned! Remember the old Ronco TV ads for the slicer cutting vegetables in all those wonderful ways? Like those carrots being chopped and minced, the data which comprises our internet activities are transformed from the moment it is created. Once it is released online, we really don't have too much control over it.
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Recently, Facebook made final a change to its privacy settings which were first proposed in August. Under the new settings, users automatically agree to allow Facebook to use their postings and other data in advertising. This new setting applies to teenagers as well. So, while a school district still requires a parent's or guardian's permission before permitting a student to go on a field trip (as it should), Facebook, can place the likeness of someone as young as 13 years old in an advertisement that travels the globe in seconds, can be dowloaded by anyone, and reposted forever. In light of the potential for abuse, don't we owe it to our children to educate them at least on the basics?
Some schools have already established programs through addressing internet use and its consequences. Cyberbullying is now recognized as a very serious issue that schools have acted on by providing educational programs, guest speakers, and incorporating anti-bullying language in school codes of conduct. Zero-tolerance has been applied to yet another unwanted behavior.
While I'm not suggesting that our freedom to use the internet should be regulated by the government or anyone for that matter, I do think that there is broad consensus that the old adage, "Knowledge is power" serves us well when it comes to internet use. The more educated we are about the potential for misuse and abuse of ours and our children's internet use, the smarter decisions we will make when traversing the highways of cyberspace.
To give you some ideas of what you can do to protect your familly, I have posted links to three excellent pages with information on safegarding data while using the internet. One is an article on protecting online image, another is a link to the Federal Trade Commission's website on COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), which was enacted to put parents in control of the information collected from their young children online. The third is a link to a page on the FBI's website with helpful information on child safety and internet use.
I invite you to read the information on these sites. It may reinforce what you already know, or open your eyes to useful information you of which you were unaware. Either way, it can help you to make your family's use of the internet safer. And that that's always a good thing.
