Wisdom

The learning environment for our adolescents and teenagers is going through a revolutionary change in regards to Curriculum and Instruction. The chalkboard is no more to be seen and is being replaced by document cameras, smart-boards, computers, and projectors. Teachers are using power point, projectors, and virtual journeys into history. Our adolescent students and teenagers are using their computers and jump drives to do their school work. They communicate with their peers via face book, instant messaging, and texting. Their online learning has become a necessity.

Teenagers who use the Internet and its world wide web for learning and social use are finding that their social use of the internet can be very deceptive in terms of privacy and security. When teenagers think that they are chatting online with the boys and girls of their own age, sometimes they are actually chatting with adult men who identify themselves as teenagers. These online predators are very clever in their disguise and sometimes succeed in getting the teen to meet them at a certain place. When something like this happens, the teen is in danger of being sexually violated and killed.

The aim of Webwise kids, a national teen advisory board and cyber club, is to empower today's youths to make wise choices online. They bring the issue of internet to the forefront. They educate middle school children and teenagers on how to remain safe online with the missing program, and our cyber cops series. They also educate parents and teachers about online safety with a wisdom program. They offer much more services all aimed at the security and protection of young teens. I recommend that you pay this site.
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Screen Retriever Software

I think it is an excellent idea to have a screen retriever software. Parents ought to monitor their children's online activity, and what better way to do it than to have a screen retriever monitor. In this way, parents can monitor their children's online activity without being in the same room as their kids. Parents will have peace of mind when they know exactly what their children are doing online. Attached is the link for additional information.

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Camgirls

Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networking
is a very interesting book. Theresa Senft, writer of this book, is able to present readers with a first-hand account of the ethnographic study of Camgirls. Camgirls are basically women who broadcast themselves over the web for the general public. In this process, they try to cultivate a status that gives them a micro celebrity feeling. Senft participated in one of the earlier forms of webcamming from her little apartment in her quest to write about camgirls. She called her participation “homecamming,” and has since chronicled the various stages of webcamming. Today, this cyberspace phenomenon has moved on to enable women to find newer forms of identity through social networking sites such as Live Journal, You tube, MySpace and Facebook. On one hand our society encourages women to find an identity through confession,celebrity, and sexual display, while on the other hand, conservatives criticize camgirls for exposing too much.

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Surfing the net

How naive young girls can be. We need to educate our girls before it is too late.
A picture is worth a thousand words. There are videos here that give real life account of how internet predators are exploiting their craft of luring young girls. The Sheena and Megan story tells about a stalker who claimed that he was twenty-two and was a scout from the New York Metropolitan modeling agency. He was almost successful in winning her over Megan if the cops had not intervened. Then there is the story of Katie Canton who was lured by an internet predator. He told her how he loves her and how attractive she is. Katie would have been lured by that internet predator if her father had not called the cops. Law enforcement advised her to play the “missing” which is a game about online predators. This game happens to reflect real life with online predators, and caught Katie’s interest. At the end of the game, the player had to write an internet safety plan. Please check out the following links.

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Safety Computer Games

Webwise Kids Programs offer various online programs and games that are geared towards providing children with Internet Safety. “The Missing Game,” for example, is an interactive online game that enables children how to make wise decisions when dealing with online predators, cyber bullying, cyber stalking, piracy etc. Another program from Webwise kids is the “Mirror Image.” The goal of Mirror Image is to teach adults about child abduction and to help children to be able to play the games and to learn what is out there. Some of the other games that fall under Mirror Image include online banking, online romance, modeling scams, and computer viruses. There is also a “Community Shield Approach that also made a commitment to children’s internet safety. The commitment includes law enforcement, educators, after school groups and parents. Another program called Wired with Wisdom educates parents about chat room, emails, privacy etc. Please check out the link below.

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Think Before You Post

Think Before You Post
“Think before you post” on face book and other social networking website is such a dire warning to teenagers that even the President of the United States had to personally sound the alarm. President Obama warns children to be careful about what they post on face book because it can come back to haunt them later in life especially when they are looking for a job.

Teenagers can get overly excited when they engage each other on a social network such as face book and my space. It is not uncommon for them to put their personal information; however, the problem is that not only their intended friends see what they post, but also the friends of their friends. The friend of your friend can be your enemy. In fact, anyone can see the posting.

There are many wicked people who surf various social networks, and they would not pass up an opportunity to mischaracterize or distort texts or images of a teen on the internet. This can result in great humiliation and embarrassment to the teen, as in the case of Sarah in the video. The social network sites can be very exciting, but people have to be careful of what they post.

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Think you know who you are talking to on the internet?

Do you Think you know who you talking to on the internet? It is not uncommon at all for people to pretend to be who they are not on the internet. The most common pattern of deception on the internet comes from the adult male who would pretend to be a teenager or someone much younger than he actually is just to chat, and ultimately befriend a teenage a girl. He will come across as very friendly and pleasant, and once he manages to get more attention from her, he will will begin to charm her with nice words. A typical teenager is naive, and so she would easily fall for his tricks. This male predator would then begin to make his move. Sometimes he would arrange to meet with her but if he doesn't, he would continue to manipulate her from his own place. He would ensure that she is in the privacy of her room and then ask her to turn on her web cam. He would then gradually ask her to do various inappropriate things. Once he gets her to do a little something, he can then threaten to blackmail her if she does not want to continue. Teenage girls need to report abuse. They must exercise this option. The earlier they do it the better. Law enforcement officials would be thrilled to go after them. Check out this link.
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Are there more girls than guys on the internet?

This video is very interesting mainly because it seeks to answer a question that is both simple but yet difficult. There are more girls than boys in this world but does that necessarily translate into a primarily female social internet usage? This question becomes tricky especially when it was discovered that young boys used to identify themselves with girly names just to chat with girls. Cyber stalkers are typically male. As a result, girls have decided to identify themselves with different names such as ng9001 to hide their gender. In this way they are unlikely to be singled out and become a target by their male counterparts. Thus, as the girl’s identity become more difficult to detect, the question of whether there are more girls than guys on the internet becomes a good one.

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Internet Safety

Although the internet is a great place, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Teens and everyone can communicate with loved ones far away and it is free to do so. There is a vast amount of information available on any subject. On the other hand, children can often stumble upon or seek out inappropriate websites when using the Internet at home. This can be dangerous if the child shares personal information.


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A Girl's Life Online

Katherine Tarbox’s story “A Girl’s Life Online,” gives us a horrific picture about herself when she was a young and innocent thirteen year old girl. She met Mark in an online teenage chat room and began to develop a virtual friendship with him. At first, he claimed that he was twenty-three years old then he changed his age to thirty-one. His real age was forty-one. This online predator preyed upon Kathy whom he found to be naïve and gullible. He was able to deceive her by telling her things that she wanted to hear. He even bought her gifts. He was so convinced that he captured her heart by making a very bold move to meet with her. Fortunately, her friend reported her missing to her mom who alerted the hotel security, and they were able to save her in the nick of time. This story serves as a testament to the fact that there can be a lot of deception and harm for a person who is trying to make friendship with someone unknown. This story should open the eyes of parents as to the dangers teenagers face as they cultivate online relationships with people they establish a rapport with online. It is unfortunate that online predators would target their victims who are as young as thirteen and fourteen. Tweens and teens need to be wary of who they chat with online and must at all times exercise caution.

I would recommend every teenager and every parent to read "A Girl's Life Online" written by eighteen year Katherine Tarbox. Tarbox was a top student and nationally ranked swimmer but she was very lonely. Her parents were workalcoholics so they had no time for her. In her book, Tarbox tells about her experience with her online boyfriend and how it has affected her life. Tarbox's memoir demonstrates what it is like to be a girl in the Internet Age.

Check out this link.

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