Facebook and texting danger?

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

my principal has issued an e-mail to all parents at my school about how they should delete or check on their children's Facebook and Check their text without permission every day because of danger of Cyber bullying.....because he caught a few bad comments on facebook which is supposed to be blocked on my schools computers. to me this sounds like an invasion of privacy, not that i have anything to hide, but it just seems like its kinda un-fair to my classmates. I mean if someone is getting syber-bullied they can report the comment and tell their parents. My principal has gotten to the point where he and a few of his students (all girls because he didnt trust boys to tell the truth ) to be interviewed about their facebooks and their texts, the interview is going to be on the news tonight on CBS news @ 5. i plan on watching to see what my classmates say. What do you guys think? do you think it is a good idea for parents to check their kids' texts and delete their facebooks just because of a few people said bad things?

[Veritas]

Children have no legal right to privacy from their parents. I believe children have a legal right to privacy from their teachers and principals, but to be fair, most of those comments were either made at school on school computers, or were public comments - which negates the right to privacy.

A good parent should keep an eye on their children's texts and Facebook anyway, because children are irresponsible little prats, who can't be trusted. I know I'd keep a casual eye on things. Unobtrusively, and I wouldn't step in unless something got absolutely terrible. But it's what a good parent does.

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

Children have no legal right to privacy from their parents. I believe children have a legal right to privacy from their teachers and principals, but to be fair, most of those comments were either made at school on school computers, or were public comments - which negates the right to privacy.

A good parent should keep an eye on their children's texts and Facebook anyway, because children are irresponsible little prats, who can't be trusted. I know I'd keep a casual eye on things. Unobtrusively, and I wouldn't step in unless something got absolutely terrible. But it's what a good parent does.

little prats? lol i can take irresponsible because we are irresponsible at times but little prats lol.... Back on topic i feel like we have our rights to have a facebook and formspring if we choose to. My principal said and i quote, "The reason is blunt, students here have no reason to join a social networking site". I have nothing against my principal, when i got suspended in 2008 he was understanding about my situation calling it a stupid mistake that i did, but there are reasons why we go on facebook. One is that we have friends in other nations and countries. while we could e-mail and text each other, we can keep in touch by facebooking, (ex. posting on profiles talking on FB chat.)

[Veritas]

Back on topic, indeed.

1) You may have a reason to be on Facebook and such, but you do not have a right to be on it unsupervised.

2) You don't have a *right* to be on Facebook. There's no right to it. It's a privilege extended to you by the people who own your internet connection and phone plan, which isn't you. It's your parents and your school.

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

Back on topic, indeed.

1) You may have a reason to be on Facebook and such, but you do not have a right to be on it unsupervised.

2) You don't have a *right* to be on Facebook. There's no right to it. It's a privilege extended to you by the people who own your internet connection and phone plan, which isn't you. It's your parents and your school.

ok also agreeable. our parents trust us enough to let us go on the internet without supervision, but i guess what my point is, why punish everyone when its only a few people that insulted and cyber-bullied a person?

[Shadow Soul]

Because it is far easier to impose a blanket ban than just barring a few individuals. It also ensures it doesnt happen again.

Plus why would you need to be on FB or any other social networking site while your a school...ok if it was recess or a free study period.

Plus don't you have to be over a certain age to use things like FB (offically I mean).

TBH as a parent I'd rather have a pro-active school that reacts strongly than one that doesnt give a damn

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

Because it is far easier to impose a blanket ban than just barring a few individuals. It also ensures it doesnt happen again.

Plus why would you need to be on FB or any other social networking site while your a school...ok if it was recess or a free study period.

Plus don't you have to be over a certain age to use things like FB (offically I mean).

TBH as a parent I'd rather have a pro-active school that reacts strongly than one that doesnt give a damn

Facebook is blocked at my school....for students, teachers can go on all the want ('I've seen my teachers go on while we were taking tests before) and yes you have to be over a certain age, and i think that it's been changed to being 13 years old or above. My parents odont really care because tey trust me enough to know i wont get into any trouble.

Here's the article http://wcbstv.com/technology/facebook.s ... 62565.html

[Shadow Soul]

Well, I understand the blocking of things like FB at school for students...after all they are meant to be there to learn not to pass on messages via txt or be sat playing Mafia Wars or Vampire Wars.. (Yes I do use FB myself..to keep in touch with folks).

Now..I have a 12 yr old daughter...who is allowed access to the net at home....but I check what sites she goes on etc....not because I don't trust her...I don't trust anyone else out there, not unless I can vouch for that person personally.

Is it all a bit harsh...him wanting parents to take responsibility for their children and their actions...not at all.

[Dan]

I think this all comes down to parental responsibility. If you as a parent think there is something wrong with your child, then reading their Facebook page or text messages may be the only way of finding out if they are being cyber bullied. If on the other hand your child appears fine, then being so invasive is ridiculous and unfair. Reading their private messages is really no different from hooking them up with a hidden mic and listening to all their private conversations with their friends. The school clearly have the best of intentions, but as always it seems there's a lack of emphasis on the parents using their own judgments.

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

I was brought up learning to look at both sides of a problem to try and handle a problem fairly, and Dan's post is a great way of putting this issue. but teens will be teens and want their answer to be right lol, they already made a "Kids should have the rights to have Facebook" group and its growing in popularity, but i guess they're just expressing their opinion just like my principal expressed his on the local news. so i think both sides of this argument are valid, where parents should be able to keep control over what their kids are doing and saying, but without them getting to into our stuff, like Dan said

If you as a parent think there is something wrong with your child, then reading their Facebook page or text messages may be the only way of finding out if they are being cyber bullied. If on the other hand your child appears fine, then being so invasive is ridiculous and unfair Reading their private messages is really no different from hooking them up with a hidden mic and listening to all their private conversations with their friends.

[Veritas]

Well, I still disagree, children don't have a right to use Facebook, and they certainly don't at school. But I agree with Dan - the parents should be proactive here.

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

well ok, what do you cant as a "right"? theres right of freedom of speech and all that, then rights like being able to without being told not to. We're old enough to have a Facebook, most people dont have a problem with kids having a facebook, the only problems there could be is 1) posting inappropriate pictures 2) cyber-bullying/ offensive posts, but if there are more post 'em.

[Veritas]

All I'm saying is that it is a privilege, not a right - you don't have a right to have it. If it's taken away there's no recourse.

Facebook, you see, is dangerous because many kids don't know how to protect themselves online - leading to cyber bullying, etc, or worse. I just think that parents need to be educated on social networking and how to keep an eye on it.

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

o lol makes more sense, and it makes sense, kids dont know how to properly protect themselves on sites because even though we had classes on internet safety, girls are still posting pics of them in poses and doing really wack things, and giving out info, and guys are doing things that arent good like cyber bullying and well, other stuff that was deemed "bad" (i really cant remember what those things were since those classes were in the first quarter of my school year)

[Veritas]

It's not even that - it's not a teenager's job to protect themselves. It's their parent's job, legally, and we forget such things. Most parents don't want to interfere. I, however, would.

[Ed Burns]

All I'm saying is that it is a privilege, not a right - you don't have a right to have it. If it's taken away there's no recourse.

Facebook, you see, is dangerous because many kids don't know how to protect themselves online - leading to cyber bullying, etc, or worse. I just think that parents need to be educated on social networking and how to keep an eye on it.

I wouldn't let my kids have a Facebook account right now... My oldest is 8, and youngest is 4... That would put me below stupid on the list if I created accounts for them... That being said, my sister created one for her 7 year old daughter... Since I hate my sisters' guts, she's already well below the Dumbfuck rating on the stupidity list for making a Facebook Account for her 7 year old... My Facebook Account has most of the Privacy settings set to Friends only for all my information... I also have my search settings set so nobody can search for me on there publicly unless you're a friend of a friend... They also have a "Partners" option in that they can share your personal info with these partners unless you set your settings to not allow it... Most people don't know about this... I got an Email from a friend of mine about it, and I automatically changed that too... Now that I'm done rambling on, and on, I'd say be careful what you post, and know, or learn how to adapt your privacy settings to protect you, and your personal information to your liking... Even at 38 years old, I don't fully trust social networks like Facebook, so I watch what I post on it...

[Mysteriosphenom1224]

My principal was just on goodmorning america to talk about this, and has been interviewed by many newspapers, when i was getting a ride from my friend he was being interviewed. the view even touched on this topic. and I forgot to mention another site where people can be cyber-bullied. Formspring. I cant even talk about how many posts i got on there talking smack about me and how i suck at playing the guitar and how im fake and a poser. I'm used to just swatting these away but i mean this is some bad crap if it hit a teen girl or boy that was new to this and didnt know how to take care of it. i mean i just remembered how a girl that moved from Ireland to here committed suicide because of cyber-bullying on facebook and myspace. with that in mind i just remembered that its not just ridgewood that is being affected cuz of this

[Ed Burns]

And most parents have no idea that this is going on...

I think it should be up to the parents to be more aggressive in monitoring who their kids are talking to, what the content is, and so on... Like Veritas said, all of that, Facebook, and Texting, even having a Cell phone is a privilege not a right... If it's monitored, and caught in time, then the parents can take it away...

Alot of this goes on due to parents not knowing about it, not taking the time to monitor it, not believing their kid would do it, acting as if they don't have the time to monitor it, and not caring at all about what their kids are doing...

In the end, it should be more the parents responsibility, not the schools', to monitor this, and if there's a problem, take it away...

[Shadow Soul]

And most parents have no idea that this is going on...

I think it should be up to the parents to be more aggressive in monitoring who their kids are talking to, what the content is, and so on... Like Veritas said, all of that, Facebook, and Texting, even having a Cell phone is a privilege not a right... If it's monitored, and caught in time, then the parents can take it away...

Alot of this goes on due to parents not knowing about it, not taking the time to monitor it, not believing their kid would do it, acting as if they don't have the time to monitor it, and not caring at all about what their kids are doing...

In the end, it should be more the parents responsibility, not the schools', to monitor this, and if there's a problem, take it away...

Exactly, a lot of my daughters friends think I'm overly strict and a meanie because I wont allow her to take a mobile phone to school...she is 12 yr old why does she need one...if something happens at school, the school will phone me. Also I monitor her Internet access and she doesn't have an email of her own..since she is a minor. Even one of our family friends asked why I don't trust her...like I said its not a case of not trusting her...its more about not trusting anyone else out there. If she goes to the park down the road...both her dad or myself will regularly pop down ant just make sure she is where she says she is....overly protective, maybe...paranoid a little...these days you got to be if your a parent.

[Veritas]

You know, I think that paranoid is the wrong term. First of all, statistically, we live in the safest time ever in recorded human history. Part of that is because our socio-political pact is extremely strong and prevents the majority of citizens from performing crimes; part of that is because we have had strong parents. But the speed of technology is getting away from them. Most parents know how to judge a park and decide if it is safe or not; few know how to judge Facebook, and therein lies the rub - people who want to commit crimes are switching to cybercrimes, because of the belief that's it's easier to get away with it. Is it? I don't think so, but I do think that until the current generation of children become parents, we will have a massive technological gap between adults and youth due to the sudden speed of change.