I set up the collaborative blog some of our students used to record their journey through Germany over April vacation. 15 seniors and 6 teachers from the Facing History and Ourselves class embarked on a 13 day trip. They entered relfections and descriptions of their daily activities and experiences into the blog. I set up an audio account too and showed the teachers how to post video to Google video and then embed it into the blog. For the most part, however, they stuck with text entries. When they all got back to the states, the lead teacher started putting some photos in.

It was really fun getting it together for them and being able to read their experiences every day in “real time.” It will be extremely useful in getting additional funding next year for another trip.

It is cases like this in which technology enhances the learning experience. Yes they could have each written their reflections into individual hard-copy journals. But by entering them into a blog, their experience is shared immediately with their peers, their teachers, funders, and pretty much the whole world, who can in turn comment or create discussions online.

Related Links:
http://www.techbostonacademy.org/europe06/

Ugh. I am still very disturbed by this report on NBC’s Dateline Wednesday night : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12503802/

NBC news correspondent Chris Hansen and the group Perverted Justice set up its fourth sting operation to expose online sexual predators, this time in middle America – Ohio. I had not seen the 3 previous reports which uncovered sexual predators in the New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. areas. Over the course of all 4 stings, over 90 men were confronted.

A Perverted Justice consultant, or Peej, posed online as a 13 year old girl interested in having sex. “She” was quickly taken up on her offer, some men driving as much as 2 hours in the middle of the night to meet her. When they’d arrive at her house, staked out by the County Sheriff’s department and recorded by hidden cameras, they were confronted by Chris Hansen from Dateline.

The predators ranged from the ages of 21 to 44. They were truck drivers, firemen, engineers and school teachers – not your typical “dirty old men.” And every one of them denied that they intended to have sex with the 13 year-old, despite their graphic & detailed chat logs, which Hansen would read back to them (boy, did they squirm!). Many of the men had actually seen Dateline’s previous reports, and yet this did not discourage them from acting out the same deviant and illegal behavior.

So what’s illegal about it if they didn’t actually DO anything physically to the underage girl? Is there a crime if there is no victim? Ohio’s importuning law comes into question, specifically “an adult accused of soliciting sex from a minor using a telecommunications device like a computer.” Is an undercover cop posing as a 13 year old to capture online predators as illegal as an undercover cop posing as a drug dealer to arrest buyers?

I teach a unit on online safety to my freshman, and we discuss the risks and benefits of the internet. I feel VERY strongly that this is an essential unit. I show NetSmartz’s videos and assign the downloadable activities to the class. It is apparent by our class discussions that it is a subject the kids are aware of and understand (don’t give out personal information online, don’t meet anyone in person alone that you met online), but do they actually practice these safety tips? Teens are curious and carefree online, and most likely take risks in chat rooms with strangers because of their naïve assumption of anonymity and protection online. And yet even with a tight-lipped profile, savvy online predators can get the information they want out of their victims.

It’s one thing if these guys are living out their disgusting fantasies online and leaving it there. But the danger lies in not knowing whether and WHEN they will take it to the next level of meeting the teen in person, like the pervs on Dateline did. Luckily, Perverted Justice intercepted them. But they do not intercept them all. And what Dateline exposed is that they ARE out there in cyberspace, they could be anyone, and there are too many of them.

I do not believe that parents can completely control their child’s behavior online, although methods such as limited and monitored internet time, filters and content blocks can help and keep improving. But teens are computer savvy and they will find a way to get what they want. I see it every day at school. If the internet is disabled, they plug in a jump drive with their videos on it. If certain applications are blocked, they figure out how to rename or move files to make it work. When parents are watching, they’ll have one desktop running, and when they are not, they’ll pull up the other desktop running in the background.

And teens take risks both off and on line. They are developmentally unable to foresee the consequences of their decisions or understand the severity of their irresponsible actions.

So what is the solution? It is both education of the teen AND the parent. ( Check out the “what your child would expect” tour! CREEPY!! ) It is stricter laws against the online solicitation of minors. And it is groups like Perverted Justice continuing to intercept, embarrass, and incarcerate these predators. One question that remains, however, is what is being done to rehabilitate these men? What is the follow-up?

You gotta check out Perverted Justice.com : They not only post every conviction, but if the police choose not to participate in the sting, Perverted Justice posts the predators information, chat logs, and photo on their site! Peejs cannot arrest the predators. They have to get the cooperation of the police agency in the area they are monitoring. So many agencies do not have internet task forces, or the law itself to enforce.

Related links :
Dateline NBC : To catch a predator
Perverted-Justice
NetSmartz.org