This summer Oprah Winfrey re-aired her shocking program from February 2006, “The Young Boy Lured into Becoming an Internet Porn Star.” My wife recently recorded this show on our home DVR and showed it to me this weekend. Neither of us had seen this show previously or heard about this specific case. For detailed and up-to date information on the primary person the show focused on, Justin Berry, refer to the WikiPedia article for him. External links at the bottom of the article provide additional background, most notably Kurt Eichenwald’s December 19, 2005 article for the NY Times which broke the story, “Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World.” Active discussions on Oprah’s message boards reveal this program continues to strike many nerves and raise many issues. These issues are not limited to the question of whether kids should be allowed to have webcams at all, or specifically webcams in their bedrooms. As kids gain access to more digital devices capable of accessing the Internet, like handheld PSP game systems, some parents are realizing the devices can be and are (in many cases) being used to access pornographic web content. These topics are important and worth discussing at length. For the sake of brevity as well as attempted organization, I’ll summarize my main thoughts under several headings.
1. ONGOING DIGITAL DIALOG IS THE KEY
There are many issues here, but technology is neither the complete culprit nor can it offer a complete “solution” or answer. We have always, and continue to have as human beings, important needs for ongoing dialog between adults and young people. Dr. Stephen Glenn defined dialog as “a meaningful exchange of perceptions in a non-threatening environment.” All too often in our fast-paced, multi-tasking and overcommitted lives, we fail to provide adequate opportunities for adults and young people to engage in dialog. In addition to dialog, we also ALL need to have ongoing, supportive relationships of accountability with others. Without dialog and real accountability, everyone can fall into trouble of some kind. BEING ALONE is the worst condition under which anyone can face serious challenges in life. When we try to stand alone, sadly we often fall alone. We all need dialog and accountability, and those two things do not come “naturally” in our day-to-day routines. We must intentionally shape our schedules and our lives to provide for these things, otherwise they will not / do not become regular parts of our daily routines.
2. DRAWING ATTENTION TO A PROBLEM IS EASY, OFFERING REAL SOLUTIONS IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT
I frequently address Internet safety and online social networking issues in presentations for teachers, students, and parents. Just as it is relatively easy to “scare parents off the Internet,” it is also easy to identify problems without offering practical ideas for constructively addressing the issues which have been raised. The main “solution” or action step which Oprah offers to resounding applause in this February 2006 episode for parents was to prohibit all webcams in children’s bedrooms. That suggestion is not novel, of course, virtually every website focused on Internet safety issues for families includes the suggestion that computers at home be located in family spaces (like the living room) rather than in bedrooms. NetSmartz, SafeKids, and the FBI’s Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety are three example sites which include this recommendation. Yet what about wireless, handheld gaming devices like the PSP which can be used to get online? What about laptops when your child attends a progressive school implementing a 1:1 laptop learning initiative? What about your child’s cell phone, which may already permit web access and almost certainly includes text messaging and media messaging? Telecommunications convergence means many things, but one of the most tangible implications in this context is that parents and other adults have far less control today than they/we did in the past to limit the access young people have to ideas and media.
The issues raised in this Oprah episode about Justin Berry ARE very important and worth discussing. I was disappointed to see that in that program from 2006, at least, Oprah and others speaking on the program did not seem to suggest much with respect to addressing this issue other than suggesting parents everywhere ban webcams from children’s bedrooms.
3. WEBCAMS HAVE VIABLE AND BENEFICIAL USES BESIDES PORNOGRAPHY
Episodes like this one from Oprah tend to be sensationalist in nature. These are REAL issues, of course, but we should be wary to not overgeneralize based on the statements and opinions of the show guests. Both Justin Berry and Kurt Eichenwald make the argument that webcams have no viable place in anyone’s home or on anyone’s computer. Their opinion seems to have been (during this 2006 show) that the only reason someone would need a webcam is to engage in Internet pornography. This position is both extreme and false. It is not baseless: Certainly Justin provides a disturbingly vivid example of how some Internet users DO choose to use webcams to engage in pornography. It is misleading and harmful, however, to generalize and state that ALL webcams are used for nothing other than porn.
Do terrorists around the world use cell phones to plan and coordinate violent attacks? Are students around the world using cell phones to cyberbully? Sadly, the answer to both questions is yes. Should we therefore assume that all cell phones are evil and should be banned from the planet? That would be ridiculous. Yet the audience in Oprah’s show in February 2006 seemed to accept this same argument about webcams.
I may be in the minority with this view, but I contend every K-12 and university classroom in the United States should be equipped with a webcam and microphone in addition to an Internet-connected computer. The reason for this is simple: We live in a global society with an interdependent global economy. As Andrew Churches wrote last week in his outstanding post “21st Century Assessment:”
Collaboration is not a 21st century skill it is a 21st century essential.
As teachers we should be using audio and videoconferencing technologies REGULARLY when we participate in and lead professional development workshops. Our students should be utilizing audio and videoconferencing technologies EVERY WEEK as regular elements of their classwork. Encouraging this type of regular digital collaboration is not a repetition of history, it is a tangible way to recognize the dramatically different economic landscape in which we live and make appropriate behavioral modifications in response to that new understanding. Without a webcam and a microphone, how will learners in our classrooms make these regular, critical connections? On their own cell phones when they get outside the school building? We shouldn’t limit student and teacher opportunities for collaboration to their own free time and their own personal telecommunications devices.
Videoconferencing has been limited in the past by access to costly hardware equipment, but those days are clearly over. In addition to $20 webcams, videoconferencing has already moved onto cellular phones in parts of Europe and the far east. In the United States, cell phone services like Video Share from AT&T are but a small preview of the videoconferencing technologies which are literally on our doorstep. Should we accept the view presented by this Oprah show from 2006 that “nothing good can be done with a webcam?” Certainly not. We should heed the advice of many when it comes to the issue of Internet safety, and take multiple steps to address the issues which are raised here. Just as an informed organization today approaches network security with a “defense in depth” approach, families, school groups, and communities should also approach Internet safety in a similar way.
4. CULTIVATING DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP SKILLS SHOULD BE OUR FOCUS
Some “Internet safety experts” like Parry Aftab suggest banning your child from having any access to social networking websites like MySpace, or sitting by/with your child every moment s/he is using a social networking website. This is completely unrealistic, in my view. Parry writes:
Professionals recommend either denying your children access to MySpace, or sitting there with them as they use it. This mom agrees. Of course kids go to other friend’s houses and use MySpace, but that requires increased supervision by the friend’s parents. MySpace damage must be discussed and taken seriously.
I spoke with an Edmond parent earlier this summer whose 8th grade daughter spends 2.5 hours EACH NIGHT on Facebook. The daughter does not talk with friends on the phone, she does not use IM or email, she uses Facebook. How many kids are “out there” like this? A lot. As parents, are we going to try and ban our children from EVER being on a social networking website of ANY kind, regardless of their age? I certainly agree that depending on the age of a child, social networking sites like MySpace are NOT appropriate. Like other issues which come up in parenting, decisions have to be made based on a variety of factors including the age and maturity of the child. Like it or not, however, we DO live in a media-centric society in which the Internet is playing an ever more important role. Google HAS and continues to create an electronic porfolio about every single one of us. The question should NOT be whether or not, as a parent, you are going to allow your child at some point to establish an online presence, instead it should be WHEN are you going to start encouraging your child to proactively and responsibly manage their online identity which will likely be one of the most important factors future employers take into consideration both before and after formal job interviews?
We must cultivate digital ethics as digital citizens. No, that is likely NOT one of your assigned state standards, but it is imperative to address with your own students as well as your own children in the months ahead none-the-less.
There are many more issues which this episode from Oprah raised and continues to raise, but I think I will close here. It was very worthwhile to watch this segment with my wife and discuss it at length. I wish, like the PBS Frontline special “Growing Up Online,” Oprah would choose to make the full-length video of that episode viewable for free online. While I still maintain we need to focus on constructive ways to address these issues and not merely point out the problems, there IS great value in catalyzing conversations about these issues– and Oprah certainly does that well in this case as well as others. The key is the ongoing CONVERSATION and dialog about these issues. Our need for “digital dialog” is the reason I started the Digital Dialog Ning many months ago. In the months ahead, I hope conversations will continue there and elsewhere about these issues and the ways we can address them as parents, educators, and community members. From these conversations can come actions, which can and will change the world in tangible ways for those we are able to influence in our own lives and contexts.
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