"With great power comes great responsibility."
I think that this quote applies to what we are talking about this week. There is so much to cover that I have to use bullet points to keep track of my thoughts so I apologize.
- First, I have been following the case of Megan Meier, a young girl who killed herself because she was being bullied on MySpace. Here is the link to one of the many articles:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/15/internet.suicide/index.html
Just in case, because I know my link didn't work last time, if you visit cnn.com and search for Megan Meier all the articles will come up. This story is heart breaking because it is something so stupid that created such a drastic and permanent response. Being a teenager is hard enough with all this additional pressure created by social networking. Generally speaking, teens don't have the foresight to comprehend the repercussions of their actions. As I say that, the antagonist in the Megan Meier story is actually an mother of one of her friends. It really is heartbreaking because it is so preventable.
- I heard that colleges are now checking the WebPages of applicants for questionable material.
- The pressure to be popular and the need to fit in is only getting worse.
- Parents have a hard job trying to stay up on what their kids are doing, let alone ahead of them.
- I liked the Ad Council’s video about thinking before you post.
Just a side note. As a military spouse, we live in another country and I have lots of updates about my husband (Andy) and I would love to have a Webpage that our friends and family could utilize. Due to OPSEC (operational security) I am not allowed to post anything remotely related to Andy. I have no problem with that either. His safety is first and for most. Just one more layer to this onion.
4 comments:
I've had this case on my mind during the discussions this week, too. How do we find the fine line between protecting people like Megan and protecting people's right to privacy? Unfortunately, I don't think there's an easy answer, which is what makes this topic both so much more important and so much more difficult.
I'm pretty sure it's "With great power, comes great responsibility," first uttered by Ben Parker to his nephew Peter in 1963.
We have someone at work that always checks the web for information about applicants. I am not sure how I feel about this. Facebook and the like are a part of your private life...only made public. But should your entire history be a part of a job interview?
I think that this case is really tragic. It should be a warning in general for teens to be aware of what they are posting about themselves on FB and myspace. In my own school, some girls posted pictures of themselves in their thongs taken by one of the girl's younger brothers. Ewww. The principal found out and the pictures were removed. First of all, I never really thought about it, but is that even legal. He asked that the pics be removed, and they were, but did he have the right to even ask that?
Second, parents should be aware of what their kids are posting on this accounts. I hope that most parent's are not like Claus' from the video, but I do think they have no idea what their kids are up too, and for some, are okay with being ignorant of the facts.
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