Moving at the Speed of Creativity - Location-aware DSN tools problematic for kids

Location-aware DSN tools problematic for kids

Published by Wesley Fryer in geography, isafety, socialnetworking, web 2.0 on August 19th, 2006

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I learned last week about Meetro (“the social messenger”), which is a digital social networking service that sort of combines an instant messaging service with MySpace. The main thing that is different and powerful– and also a major source of concern, is how Meetro is location-aware. Here is the Meetro description sent to people you choose to invite to use the service after you sign up:

Meetro is a “location-aware social messenger” that combines all the fun aspects of ‘Social Networks’, with all the real-time communications of ‘Instant Messengers’, wraps that around location, and finally adds two fist full’s of photos and profiles. Meetro is software that allows you to see who is logged in nearby, right now, and start chatting with them INSTANTLY. It’s so simple to get up and running. As soon as you sign on, you’ll see people online that you can talk to. You’ll also see us here at the Meetro HQ, we’re here to answer any of your questions, comments, and feedback. It’s easy to stay in touch with your existing friends, they might already be on Meetro, or you can connect to your AIM, MSN, and Yahoo accounts.

Software like this may seem appealing to adults and youth alike, but I see many problems that parents and educators should be aware of. Certainly young people use digital social networking (DSN) tools to communicate with their existing friend-base, who they know face-to-face (F2F), but it can also be exciting and engaging to meet new people online. This is potentially dangerous, of course, but is likely made even more dangerous with a program like Meetro which is location-aware. If a young teenage girl meets “someone” online via MySpace or another website, they may be geographically separated by many miles– and the possibility of a LMIRL encounter may be statistically less-probable there than it would be after interacting on Meetro.

We have GOT to help kids, parents, educators and others saavy-up on DSN! The need for this is growing and is not going to decline in the months ahead. Although I am a big fan of safe DSN for kids, I do NOT personally think that anyone under age 18 should be using a location-aware DSN service like Meetro. I don’t think I’m going over the edge of conservativism with this opinion… but what do you think? Certainly all kids need more awareness and encouragement from adults to ACT SMART and MAKE GOOD CHOICES when they are online. I think DSN tools which are not location-aware will by their very nature be more safe from a “stranger-danger” perspective than services like Meetro.

On this day..

3 Comments »

http://www.mguhlin.net/blog Miguel Guhlin

Thanks for sharing. Looks scary to me, too. What is your recommendation to K-12 school districts regarding this tool?

Miguel
http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

Irrespective of my recommendations, I think most schools are going to block tools like this and MySpace. I need to think more in depth about this– but generally I think districts should have differentiated website blocking policies when it comes to DSN. I think high school students should have greater access to DSN sites than elementary school students– and districts should have curricular requirements for Internet safety topics and safe digital social networking. I favor an Internet access environment in schools which is much more open and permissive than the one we see in most districts today. The conversation about “is this appropriate to use” or “is this appropriate to use in school / during instructional time” is not happening in many cases, in my perception, because the IT department and/or the district administrators are deciding to simply block websites. This actually prevents conversations and interactions from taking place which need to happen.

So, I would be fine with a high school NOT blocking access to this site, but actively working to educate students about appropriate and safe use of DSN sites. Parents need to be included as well.

The kids are going to use tools like this, whether the school blocks access on the local network or not. The bigger and more important question is whether adults are going to help kids learn appropriate use of these tools. In most cases, I think schools and adults in general are not doing their part to have these discussions with young people.
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