l

As a teacher of IT in a girls’ high school, I watch teenagers interact with technology everyday. One thing about this interaction stands out to me more than anything else – they are not afraid of it. If they want to see what something does, they just try it.

Something else I have noticed, and I didn't’t have to be a genius to see this one, they love to talk about themselves, share information, share gossip, and increasingly, share photos.

This sharing has been greatly enhanced by the internet and the internet has taken it into potentially dangerous areas. The first I really considered these dangers was many years ago when it came to my attention that MSN groups had “taken off” with teenagers. They were setting up groups to facilitate their communication with friends. Word quickly spread when someone set up a group and the memberships came flooding in. Some of the groups set up by students at my school had literally thousands of memberships.

This sounds harmless enough right? This is just teenagers doing what teenagers do and talking about which boys they like, who was going to the dance on the weekend etc. I thought so too until I found out some of the things that were being posted on these group pages. It seemed that the perceived anonymity of the internet combined with access to digital cameras was a potentially dangerous mix. Photos were quickly posted that should not have been. For example, photos of girls in their school uniform (our school rules expressly forbid this). Again, this seems harmless enough until you stop and think that this combined with other information on the group pages had just broadcast to anyone who cared to notice where they went to school. In some cases enough information was provided in small snippets such that it could be determined in which street certain students lived. This is now starting to get a little more serious.

There is of course certain privacy features associated with MSN groups. Were our students using it? To a degree some of them were, but not all. Initially, very few of the groups were set to private and therefore anyone could access the information contained therein. Many had set the preferences such that the site owner approved all new members. This was particularly ineffective as if you said you were from the local boys school you were admitted. These control measures even if used, are of course, not particularly effective anyway.

When challenged about what they were doing and the associated dangers, most of the students were initially appalled that teachers were reading their “private” group pages. The teenage mind apparently finds it difficult to comprehend this concept. Not only that, but the notion that what they were doing was exposing them to danger was very difficult to get across to them. Everything appears nice and safe sitting in front of a computer screen at home in the study.

So where are we now with regard to this issue? There have been periodic repeats of the transgressions of these students from years ago. Each time the tale is repeated with frightening similarity. The problem, if anything, has become worse as more and more social networking sites make their presence felt on the internet. MySpace is perhaps the most well known but there are many others.

I started this article by mentioning the lack of fear young people have for technology. This lack of fear translates directly into a lack of fear of the consequences of its misuse. As my own daughters make their own presence felt on the internet, I intend to be quite aggressive in my efforts to monitor what they are doing online.

Do you know what your kids are doing online tonight?

Scott McNamaraGuest Author, Scott McNamara

Scott has been teaching for 8 years after a career in accounting and business. Teaching is a much more "family friendly" career hence the change. Scott teaches business and IT in a girl’s secondary school. He is 40 years old, is married and has two daughters.

Email Scott at: safety@mcnamaraoz.com