Category: Internet Safety

The following is an email I’ve found myself writing more and more often. This is the longest version (and the latest one I’ve sent off). I’ve decided to share my take on the situation here on this blog for three reasons. First, I hope I can point people here instead of writing more emails. Second, I hope this might benefit people who might never email me (such as people searching the web for this topic). And third, I hope those of you familiar with such things (either legal experts or educators who are fighting this fight – on either side) will provide feedback in the comments.

The most important thing is to understand this: not having control over documents doesn’t constitute a violation of CIPA. Not having control over an online document doesn’t make Google Docs a violation of CIPA any more than not having control over a pen and paper makes spiral bound notebooks a violation of CIPA.It’s actually more or less irrelevant to the law.

CIPA does require that school districts filter the internet to protect students from content that is “harmful to minors” (and the primary concern is porn). The key is that schools need to show due dilligence in blocking sites they know are “harmful.” There is no expectation that schools will block “anything that could possiblly or potentially be inappropriate.”

CIPA (and the related FCC regulations) do require that there is a process in place for adults to unblock legitimately educational sites… and one of the only reasons that CIPA has not been struck down in the courts is due to the ease of unblocking a site using filtering software. Ideally, teachers will have access to an individual password for bypassing a school web filter. However, many school districts make this process anything but easy – and in many cases it is effectively unavailable to teachers. This is a legal problem (and in terms IT would understand, I believe this is a liability). You’d be well within your rights to request (and expect) Google Docs to be unblocked.

But… remember that COPPA forbids Google from collecting profile information for users under 14 years old. So younger students should not be using any Google tool, including Google Docs, that requires them to log in with a Google Account. This is because Google has no mechanism for collecting “verifiable parent consent” for student profile information. However, school districts excell at collecting “verifiable parent consent” – we call this permission slips. So, if you set up Google Apps: Education Edition, collect parent consent for students to use it, and control the student accounts yourselves, you’re in good shape with respect to COPPA. (For students 14 and over, you’re legally fine having them use Google Docs – and despite the fact that Google’s terms of service say users need to be of legal age to enter into a contract, which i 18 in California, Google does encourage the use of their products with students aged 14-18.)

Regarding some of the other concerns in the thread below… much of it is off topic or irrelevant to the issue of using Google tools (such as Docs) in the classroom. Here is my brief response to a few other concerns:

• We’re not talking about outsourcing HR, we’re talking about instructional use.
• Google is explicit about the intellectual property still belonging to the user. (And their privacy policies and practices are very strong.)
• We’re not talking about sharing confidential student information, we’re talking about instructional use.
• With respect to archiving documents for public disclosure: Use of Google Docs for teaching and learning is no different than using spiral bound notebooks, photocopied assignments, or ordinary blackboards. In fact, I’d say the online documents are generally better archived than anything a district can ordinarily pull off in the classroom… particularly with the history of revisions. In any case, if districts are not concerned about “archiving” handwritten student essays on paper, I don’t see why Google Docs would be any different. We’re talking about instruction here, not district business. It’s important to remember the difference.

Again, I hope this has been helpful – and I hope you’ll leave me feedback in the comments below.

Changing my Tune – Internet Safety for Students (Via Multi-faceted Refractions.) Here’s a great new approach to Internet safety for students from Vinnie Vrotny, inspired by Steve Dembo. I love the questions he asks instead of providing students with a list of things they can’t do online. His approach also has the advantage of encouraging rather than squelching discussion.

(Via 2 Cents Worth.) David Warlick writes about a pleasantly shocking report from the National School Board Association that schools should not let the nearly non-existant danger from stalkers and predators deter them from exploring the educational use of social networking sites. Click through to read Warlick’s take, or read the original NSBA Report (pdf).

MySpace Banning Sex Offenders: Online Predator Paranoia at Climb to the Stars (Stephanie Booth) (Via a tweet from iJohnPederson.) I think John Pederson tweeted this for other reasons (the flaws in Megan’s Law I think), but I found these statistics particularly relevant to the message we are trying to get across to educators and parents in our Internet Awareness and Safety presentations.

David Finkelhor, in panel Just The Facts About Online Youth Victimization: Researchers Present the Facts and Debunk Myths, May 2007

Let me summarize the important facts and figures from this excerpt and the next few pages. The numbers are based on a sample of law enforcement cases which Finkelhor et al. performed research upon:

• most victims of “online predators” are teenagers, not young children
• only 5% of cases involved violence
• only 3% involved abduction
• deception does not seem to be a major factor
• 5% of offenders concealed the fact they were adults from their victimes
• 80% of offenders were quite explicit about their sexual intentions
• these crimes are “criminal seductions”, sexual relationships between teenagers and older adults
• 73% of cases include multiple sexual encounters
• in half the cases, victims are described as being in love with the offender or feeling close friendship
• in a quarter of the cases, victims had actually ran away from home to be with the person they met online
• only 7% of arrests for statutory rape in 2000 were internet-initiated

These statistics go a long way toward providing a balanced and nuanced view of what the real dangers are online, especially as opposed to older and potentially misleading studies such as the much quoted youth internet safety survey (the source of the 1 in 5 students are solicited for sex online statistic). The reality is that the students most at risk are those who are naive, low in self esteem, and susceptible to “grooming” (when predators build trust by acting in flattering and sympathetic ways). The issues are of course more complicated than that, but these are eye-opening statistics I wanted to capture and share here.

I just finished a draft of a screenplay for a video version of the Internet Awareness and Safety presentation I’ve been doing for the Laguna Beach Unified School District and the Orange County Department of Education. I wrote it based on the PowerPoint Slides (available on the wiki), the video of my presentation in Atlanta (available from here), and an article I wrote for Gifted Education Communicator last year. I’m sharing the script here in case anyone is interested in the perspective we’ve been sharing – and because I’m looking for feedback at this stage.

Internet Awareness Screenplay (83 KB Word Doc)

I just sent this draft to Victor Guthrie, IT director at Laguna Beach USD, who will be appearing with me in the video. The following is an excerpt from that email:

I pretty much just wrote the copy straight through – and then I divided the whole thing up into lines for me and for you.. with no thought given to who was saying what except when we introduce ourselves. So, it is pretty much one voice throughout. We can of course edit it before filming – and edit it on the fly – if there is anything you are uncomfortable saying or want to add, or if you’d like to swap lines anywhere or have me say more of it. The producer will be editing it, and I expect the OCDE will request some edits too. Also, the biggest weakness of the script right now is that it doesn’t include a lot of specific details or statistics. The benefit is that it’s much shorter than it might’ve been and yet still covers all the main points. We can of course add more if we like. Let me know what you think.

I am of course also nervous about being looked to as an expert when it comes to the safety of children, but I think the education-focused perspective we are advocating is an important one – in contrast to the efforts of some organizations which can come off as more fear-based. I’d be interested in your feedback.

Dispelling media myths about online predation (Via EdVentures in Technology.) Though the dangers are real, I am always on the lookout for posts like this that help to dispell some of the histeria surrounding the dangers of the Internet. I’m not surprised to see it come via danah boyd.

After the exciting morning at Salem, I had a bit of time in the afternoon to bone up on my Internet Awareness and Safety presentation before heading out to Capistrano Unified School District to lead a workshop there for the Orange County Department of Education. When we ran these workshops in Laguna Beach, there was generally around 20 to 40 parents participating, allowing for good discussion. Capo had over 120 RSVPs for Wednesday night’s event, but in the end we probably had around 60 people I would guess. It turned out to be a good group with lots of good questions. In answering questions, I was joined by Victor Guthrie, IT director for the LBUSD (who co-developed the workshop with me), Karla Kerr from the Orange County Sheriff’s department, and Robert Craven of the OCDE. Bonnie Cameron and Dr. Susan Holliday hosted the event in the CUSD boardroom.

I made some changes to the Internet Awareness wiki that might benefit others who want to make this same presentation. I added a workshop outline with hotlinks to everything mentioned in the presentation, a list of books I used to develop the presentation, and a few new links in the list that was already there. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive source of information, but a way to point workshop participants in right direction(s). Feel free to add additional resources yourselves if you use the wiki. :)

Incidentally, it seems students MySpace profiles are increasingly set to private… and increasingly tame (or even appropriate). While I’m sure many are lying about their age, location, and other details that make it difficult to find their inappropriate posts… that’s actually a good thing from a safety perspective. Of course, maybe they’re all just over at facebook (or somewhere else) now. ;)

PointSmartClickSafe.org (Via email from Paul Rodriguez at the NCTA.) I recieved an email alerting me to this announcement from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. In short, they’ve made a pledge to “provide parental controls, education about online safety and digital media literacy, and to provide assistance to law enforcement to stop online threats and predation.” At a glance, their approach of “Control, Educaiton, Choice” seems well balanced and not overly fear-based. They also have some high-quality video material available. In fact, it’s not unlike a video production project we’ve been discussing with the LBUSD and OCDE here in Orange County. I love when what you want to create is already out there and you can move on to other ideas. :)

UPDATE: The videos are also up on YouTube: http://youtube.com/profile?user=NCTA

ContraCostaTimes.com – Internet safer than it seems. This is the sort of Internet Awareness story I like to collect to balance out some of the more awful ones. Several edublogs linked to it yesterday.