Introducing the Digital Native
Welcome to the world of the digital native. Where everything is graphics before text, it moves at an unconventional speed, and information is always just a click away. This is the world your children are living in. Technology is as intuitive to them as turning on a light switch is to us.
We on the other hand are Digital Immigrant. We are the generation of the “did you get my e-mail phone call”. We send the e-mail…but then we pick up the phone and say, did you get my e-mail. We don’t trust technology the same way our kids do.
So what do we need to know as parents of these young digital natives? It’s simple actually, they are still our children and parenting is parenting no matter if it is out on the streets or in cyberspace.
Throughout these tutorials I will help you better understand the technology, however I will always focus on parenting the behavior! You will not need to become an Internet expert in order to have a well-rounded understanding of what your children are doing. So don’t be afraid to dive in and begin understanding the world of the digital native!
The truth about the Internet is that nothing is private and everything is permanent! You can divide the Internet into 3 areas, the semi-private, which includes e-mail, IM and texting, the public, which is SNS, youtube, forums, blogs and wikis, and lastly the secure area, places like shopping or banking online. The reason you do not see Totally Private on this list is because there is no such thing as total privacy on the Internet, not even with your e-mail or private facebook pages.
Paris Hilton discovered the truth about the Internet when Canadian computer expert Byron Ng hacked her private Facebook account to view her pictures.
A middle school student learned the truth about the Internet when she was suspended from school for uploading a video to youtube of a group of girls saying derogatory things about another school-mate.
A recent college graduate learned the truth when he didn’t receive an internship after an employer did an Internet search and found unflattering pictures and comments he posted online while still in high school.
The truth is that NOTHING is private online and once it is out there it is out there forever. We all need to understand that we are being immortalized on the Internet. That small indiscretion if caught on tape can become your downfall and there is nothing you can do to reverse the situation.
When I tell you that NOTHING is private online I mean nothing. Not even that private myspace or facebook account. As Paris discovered, it didn’t take long for someone to hack into her page. Although Facebook made immediate changes to their security it does not make it foolproof.
Your e-mails are brought to you by a service provider such as your school, employer, Time Warner, Yahoo, Goolge, or AOL. Which means they are providing you a service to use their system. They own it, and under the law they are entitle to read, store, and even attach advertisers to your account for direct marketing. Ever notice how the adds on google or facebook seem to be meant just for you? So how can we say this is private.
A friend of mine uses g-mail (owned by google). One day she sent an e-mail to a friend in COLORADO about coming to visit. The next time she logged into google, she noticed ads for IKEA in Colorado… sorry friends, this is no coincidence.
Now the other truth about the Internet is that once something is out there it is out there forever. You have to remember that E-mails, IMs, Text messages and postings on social networking sites are stored on a server somewhere.
In May of 2008 75 college students were arrested for dealing drug. The DEA had solid evidence against one member of the Theta Chi fraternity from SDSU when he sent out a mass text-message to “faithful customers,” saying that he was traveling to Las Vegas and would not be able to make his normal cocaine sales.
On a smaller scale, where the authorities are not involved, we still have the issue of being immortalized with the simple fact that anything can be downloaded from the web and then stored on a desktop.
Almost every new computer today now comes with a built in web cam. This is a video camera that can stream live video chats over the Internet. Web cams allow people to talk across the world face to face for free. The webcams have quickly become ubiquitous in the lives of teens. They use the webcam for everything from studying with friends from school to making video messages to send to grandma on the other side of the country. The possibilities are endless. However, this new technology does not come without new problems or ways to misuse it. Kids are using the webcams to expose themselves and bully others. Predators are using the webcams to capture images and video of their victims. There is a misconception that streaming video cannot be recorded without the person at the other end giving permission. While in a perfect situation this would be true this is NOT the case. Capturing images and recording the web conference is possible and is happenings more often than you would think. It is important our children know this fact. Anyone can take a screen shot which is a picture of what is on the monitor by simply pressing a key on the keyboard and there is software that lets you record what is happening on the screen as well. Both of these can be done without the person at the other end ever knowing it is happening.
SO what do we do? Stop using the technology? Throw the computers out the window. NO! What we do now is make educated decisions about what we put online:
My rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t want it on the front page of the newspaper you don’t want it online!
Google yourself and your family members to see what you can find. Make sure your screen names, content and pictures of you and your family are appropriate and represent you in a positive light.
If you find something you didn’t post yourself, contact the webmaster of the site.
Talk to your kids about the truth about the Internet, they may not realize the potential consequences of their actions.
