Issues Concerning Social Media & Web 2.0 - Are we choosing ignorance?

Image courtesy of http://hivechicago.org/

Caviglione and Coccoli do a very thorough job of describing the "underbelly" of the web.  It seems innocuous enough to sign up on sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  Isn't the worry just what you say or post?  After all, that information can be seen by potential employers, right?  As long as we keep it PG we are fine - or at least this is the perception of most web users.  The reality of it is that we give out a whole lot more of ourselves when we sign up for these sites.  The personal and private data that we certainly wouldn't post on Twitter or Facebook or pin on Pinterest.  So, why do we openly share our mothers maiden name or our address and phone number?  It seems that weekly we hear of retailers who have been "hacked" and our private data has been made public.  There is public outrage and media coverage on every channel.  Consider for a second that Facebook shares most of the information you give them with all of their advertisers? Log into your account and check the settings.  What information have your shared?  Could I trace your movements?  Could I find your love ones?  (Yes, that is really creepy)

So, the question becomes how do we teach our students how to use Social Media and avoid the potential pitfalls?  Do we skim the surface and simply teach them about choosing what to post and what not to post? Or do we dig deeper and explain the risks they are taking by simply registering on a website?  How do we decide what is developmentally appropriate for children when it comes to web use.  Since children have access to the WWW starting at such young ages via their Xbox and Playstation.  It is commonplace for even elementary school students to have cell phones these days.

If you Google the words "internet safety for kids" you will find a whole lot of lists of "rules" to use but they do very little in the way of explaining the impact of doing the things they list as bad ideas.  Like the list found on the National Child's Advocacy Network (http://www.nationalcac.org/prevention/internet-safety-kids.html).  It has solid advice but how to we get students to understand the impact of their decisions?

My solution, all though I am not certain it would be totally effective, would be to create a set of benchmarks of web/tech use in schools and start teaching them as soon as possible.  Also, I believe that parents need to be heavily involved and aware of what is being taught in the school about social media use.