tonight i lead a session about blogging. yup, technologically illiterate moi opened up the world of blogging for others. actually, for people who know little or nothing about blogs, there's quite a lot to learn. and that's just about finding blogs, figuring out how they work, commenting etc. i managed to fill up an hour without actually telling anyone how to set up a blog and write their own posts.
one of the things i ended spending a bit of time on was internet safety. particularly about the permanence of words put up on the internet, and the potential nastiness of comment threads.
i'm thinking that internet safety is something that should probably be emphasised at a much younger age. i know that my kids did get taught about safety around chatting with strangers online, and around accessing inappropriate sites. but i don't know if they're taught enough about the dangers of the stuff that they create themselves, and how it could come back to haunt them in later years. increasingly, people are leaving more and more of themselves in the public sphere, in words, photographs and video. the consequences of which are not always thought through.
[ETA: just came across this link about protecting your privacy on the internet thanx to david do!]
but in happier news, research shows that the internet is improving the writing skills of children. so much for all those who lament the use txt speak and sitting in front of the computer!
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