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April 26, 2008

"Facebook Taunts"

Daniel de Vise:

Twice this month, students at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda have used their fists to settle disputes that arose on Facebook.

So Alan Goodwin, the principal, took the unusual step of asking parents to monitor their children's postings on the social networking site. He did this in a posting to the school's e-mail list, which is a forum as addictive to some Whitman parents as Facebook has become to their children.

"I am becoming increasingly frustrated by negative incidents at school that arise from students harassing other students on Facebook," Goodwin wrote April 18.

Teens are conducting an increasing share of their social lives electronically, via text-messaging, e-mail and social networking sites such as Facebook. Threats, harassment and bullying all have followed them online. Although such behavior is not new, research suggests that it is expanding rapidly, and educators and lawmakers seem resolved to pay closer attention to the words students exchange online while off campus

I find it remarkable that many are so cavalier about exposing their social networks, detailed activities and ...... anything else on sites that mine all of this data for economic purposes. The recent discussion on "Technology & Madison Schools" is worth considering with respect to the issues our children need to understand today, and tomorrow.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 26, 2008 5:33 PM
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