Media Macaroni

A couple weeks ago I attended a lovely event about online safety sponsored by Leap Frog. When I first got the invitation, I rolled my eyes ever so slightly as I thought about not going. I tend to hate discussions of online safety for the overblown fear-mongering typical in such discussions. What? You let your child on the INTERNET?! But there might be PREDATORS! Here’s a product for you to police your home…

I decided to go anyway, and found it to be an informative discussion with helpful tips about safety considerations that really matter. The speaker at the event was About.com’s Christy Matte, their Family Computing Guide. Finally someone who speaks the same language about online safety. Right off the bat Christy let the parents in the room know that the predator threat is overrated, and that kids who are at risk of getting into trouble like that online are statistically kids who are at risk in the home life as well.

For younger kids (like mine), there’s really not too much to worry about yet. Instead of filtering out the bad, some kid browsers, such as Kidzui are helpful for “whitelisting” content – setting up a series of sites and links that are all parent-approved. Also, for all kids, it’s a good idea to have them work at a centrally-located computer to have a sense of what they’re doing in their online lives.

For older kids, though, there’s a lot to think about. I kind of dread the day when I have to have these conversations with Olive, but these are lessons that you should impart to your socially-connected child (especially tweens and teens):

• Think about the persona that you’re putting out into the world. Make sure it’s something you’d be willing to have your parent or your teacher or your grandma to see, because anything on the web has the potential to become public, and posted items can stay up there for a really, really long time (thank you, WayBack Machine)
• Young friends don’t always stay friends forever. Posted items can be disseminated by friends. An ill-thought-out comment or photo on Facebook can be downloaded and emailed to anyone.
• Cyberbullying does happen. It’s more rare than its real-life counterpart, but the psychological ramifications can be as bad. Encourage your child to come to you with any concerns.
• Keep passwords personal. See bullet #2 – trust can be a fleeting thing among kids, and passwords should stay private.

During the discussion, I thought a lot about childproofing your home when your baby starts to walk. What I tell new parents is not to go too crazy with buying all that childproofing gear until you see how much your kid gets into things. Similarly, the lengths to protect your kids online can depend on your kids. Most important is to create a trusting relationship with your child – that’s what can really keep them safe.

Christy also brought up an interesting warning to parents, especially those of us blogging and social media types who post personal details in public forums, and that’s to think about the aggregate of information that we’re putting out into the world. A detail here and a detail here can add up to provide more information than you’d really like to share about yourself and your children. She also did a finger shake at parents who post embarrassing videos of their kids on YouTube. Guilty as charged on that one, I’m afraid.

The event ended talking about the summer 2010 launch of Leap World, Leap Frog’s upcoming virtual world for kids ages 4-8. There are so many virtual worlds for kids now that it’s really hard to get excited about one, but I’m excited about this one. For one thing, it starts with a Leapster cartridge, which is good for two reasons. One, there’s both online and offline play. Two, you buy the cartridge and that’s it – no additional subscription fees. Lovely.

In Leap World, as with other virtual worlds, there are avatars and homes to customize. Canned chat is available to interact with others in Leap World. There are lots of core curriculum games to discover, along with what they’re calling “conceptual games” that include more sandbox-style play. In one weather game with an emphasis on scientific inquiry, kids can change the temperature and humidity of a town to control the weather. The games feel quite like the bygone days of CD-ROMs, ironic since in my mind Leap Frog’s products were the final nails in the CD-ROM coffin.

I’ll be looking forward to having Olive try this one out next summer. If I continue to allow her on the scary internet, that is.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 12:27 am and is filed under Web Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.