WebLabs Instant Messaging - A bad thing?

Today the teacher I'm working with panicked and asked the kids to stop
using the web site. The trigger was that the girls were getting instant
messages from Bulgarian boys asking them if they had boy friends. The
Theydon Bois boys were getting messages from Bulgaria saying that they
thought the girls were cute. Friendly stuff but the teacher worried that
some parent might get very upset about such interchanges.

Afterwards we met with the head of the school. She thought the teacher
overreacted but suggested that the kids should be made to understand
that the instant messaging if for work-related purposes. Polite
exchanging of pleasantries is OK (e.g. how's the weather  - and there
were such messages) but talk about boy friends or pop bands shouldn't be
permitted. Sounds reasonable to me - though it does need to be enforced
by me.

I think I would be happier if instant messaging didn't exist - it is
taking up much too much time and hard to control. I find it hard to tell
kids that they can't look at messages they've received. Most messages
are friendly ones saying hi and how's the weather. It seems only polite
for the kids to reply. And they are eager to do so. But there goes much
of the session.

On top of all this are the security issues - how do I know they really
were Bulgarian kids?

Another security issue is passwords. The kids use such easy passwords
that they can even crack each others accounts. Both girls used names of
pets. One boy quickly guessed correctly his friend's password when he
saw it was 5 letters. It was "Homer".

Maybe we should focus on reports where these issue don't exist or are
minimal.

Best,

-ken

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "." <jesperh-auIyqT/[email protected]>
To: <webreports-uedesign-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 11:10 AM
Subject: Re: [Webreports-uedesign] Web reports site "Security" issues


> * On Thu Jan 22, Yishay Mor wrote:
> > Jesper, I think we need to deal with the security issue ASAP, or
else we
> > might find ourselves in a very unpleasant situation.
>
> Yes, I agree. I will put other tasks aside for a while and concentrate
on
> this issue. Some of the proposed changes might be quite tricky to
> implement, but it needs to be done.
>
> Jesper
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004
> Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration
> See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA.
> http://www.eclipsecon.org/osdn
> _______________________________________________
> Webreports-uedesign mailing list
> Webreports-uedesign-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/webreports-uedesign
>
>




-------------------------------------------------------
The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004
Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration
See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/osdn