Re: WebLabs Instant Messaging - A bad thing?

Well, being from liberal Sweden this seems quite natural to us and not very 
upsetting. When we have let our kids use the Weblabs site, experiment with 
birds, or use any site of their choice this is the kind of things they do - 
also during school hours. This is what 12-14 year olds use the web for (at 
least in Sweden), to experiment with and learn about social relations. I 
think it would be a pity to shut down the instant messaging since kids need 
to learn to balance their social life with their actual school work. And 
also, if want to take the idea of community building seriously we must let 
the things that happen in real communities, happen also in ours. But 
probably the "charm of novelty"
will decrease quite rapidly as the kids get used to the site and get to 
know each other.

all the best

Jakob

At 17:33 2004-01-23 +0000, Ken Kahn wrote:
>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
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
>
>
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