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ERIC Number: EJ863362
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Nov-1
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0362-8930
EISSN: N/A
A Better Safety Net: It's Time to Get Smart about Online Safety
Collier, Anne
School Library Journal, v55 n11 p36-38 Nov 2009
Online safety is obsolete. A concept little changed since the 1990s, it's one size fits all, emphasizing fear instead of facts, with young people stereotyped as potential victims in a hostile media environment. It's past time for Online Safety 3.0. Why 3.0? Previous versions--1.0 and 2.0--focused on inappropriate content, adult-to-child crime, and flat-out misinformation about youth risk and social media. While more recently the concept began to factor in peer-to-peer safety issues such as cyberbullying, people still failed to recognize youth agency: young people as stakeholders in their own welfare as well as the community's. The author suggests that online safety must be relevant to youth. It must accommodate the growing body of research on youth risk and what kids themselves say about how they use digital media, and it must be respectful--of both young people and the new media conditions they are ably exploiting. The author advocates for integrating new media literacy and digital citizenship, version 3.0's main components, into the learning experience, from the informal kind that happens outside school to within K-12 libraries and classrooms, and to teachable moments with peers, parents, administrators, and whole communities. Literacy and citizenship training represent the baseline, primary prevention work that may help curb impulsive behavior, ease manipulation, and fuel rational discussion among young people and between generations. And it's what librarians do best.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A