PLE Week 14

*I completed steps 1-3 of the PLE

I chose to read the media and entertainment portion of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet online. I watched a bunch of video resources. A few of my favorites were the FauxPaw Techno Cat Video, Real Life Stories-Cyber-bullying video, and Private World outside Parents Reach video. They all taught valuable things that are important to know with internet safety. The FauxPaw video was a cartoon made by a BYU student and it was geared more towards children. It gave 3 main points at the end. They were: Never give your name, address, phone number, or name of your school to anyone online, never meet someone you found online, and if you ever feel uncomfortable about something you see on the computer, run and tell a parent. The cyber-bullying video was interesting to watch because it showed a kid who really regretted his decision to participate in the cyber-bullying because his sister ended up being involved. This video just showed how hurtful using the internet in this way can be, and not only to those who are victims but even to the people who actively participate. The Private World outside the Parent’s Reach was maybe the most interesting of all for me to watch. It was about a girl who was anorexic and she went online to foster her problem. She could find support groups online where people would praise each other for not eating at all in a whole day among other things. There was even a site where anorexic people could go and basically worship the idol “ana” and make confessions to her and whatnot. This really surprised me. I could hardly believe that things like this went on. When this girl was asked how much her parents knew about her anorexia she said they knew nothing at all. They were completely oblivious. She viewed the net as a place she could go to be herself and talk to other people who are “like her”. This opened my eyes a little bit to other dangers that the internet can bring. If she did not have this anorexia support group online she may actually believe that she had a problem and that she needed to seek out help rather than to find new strategies to make herself look skinnier. Some more things I learned from the other videos I watched that I did not mention were that sometimes people say things online that they would never say in person, it is easy to say things you don't mean when you are online, there is a culture of internet involvement, many children who are involved in things they shouldn’t be are not necessarily bad but they are at risk of doing bad things, kids think that when they are in their home they are safe but internet predators are just as dangerous as the ones that are lurking in the dark, it is important to have your kids give you their passwords, and we need to think of kids less as victims and more as participants. It is the kids who go out looking for a thrill that get into trouble. One thing I learned from multiple sources was that it is important to only have computers in public areas where use can be monitored. This is a great preventative measure. The For the Strength of Youth pamphlet gave a lot of guidelines and outlined a bunch of things to watch out for when it comes to media and entertainment. I learned that everything we read, listen to or look at has an effect on us whether we realize it or not. It teaches that we should not only avoid the things that we know are bad but only look for things that uplift us. It talks a lot about pornography and how it is so important to avoid it at all times. It is likened to a poison that weakens us.
The person that I talked to about internet safety was an 11 year old girl. When I asked her what she already knew about internet safety she said she knew nothing at all. She said she only uses the internet for school projects. Her parents have a password block on the computer so she cannot get into any sites that seem at all sketchy. I was surprised how little she knew about internet safety. Her little use of the internet would explain a lot of that though. A lot of the content I had to share with her was about chat rooms and corresponding with people online. She did not even know what a chat room was. So I decided to teach her more basic things that I learned like what to do if something comes up on the computer that makes her feel uncomfortable. She accepted everything I said and agreed with me. She was easy to teach. I am not too worried about this girl but I think that now she will be more careful when she is on the internet to only go to sites that she knows are safe and she will tell a parent if anything comes up that she shouldn’t see or participate in.