CIPA/COPPA
CIPA
CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) developed in 2000. CIPA sets requirements on schools and libraries who receive discounts on Internet access and connections through E-rate programs. The purpose is to make sure the schools meet certain requirements to stop students from surfing on inappropriate sites like chat rooms and downloading material, to name a few. This act also requires schools to education students on Internet Safety. What was interesting to me was that the rules and guidelines were updating in 2011. It has now been 8 years and the Internet has changed drastically. I wonder if they will be updating the rules again. Also, what about the schools that do not receive the discounts? What policies do they follow?
COPPA
COPPA (The Children´s Online Privacy and Protection Act) developed in 1998 and updated in 2013 are polices created to protect children using the Internet. This acts gives parents the control over what information websites can collect from their child under the age of 13. These updated are great and keep up with technology. But like stated above this was update in 2013, in the future will they update it again? This link is a video that outlines the changes put in place. I think that it is important for children to get adult approval before using an app or a site. However, when I am downloading apps for my students at school I see some of the questions that they have for parental control and I am sure any 13 year old would figure it out. I mean have you seen the videos of 1st graders asking Alexa to complete their homework problems for them?
Parental Control
After being a teacher and hearing information on the news, I think parents need to be more informed of ways to protect their children and how to educate them. The schools have systems that protect our students from using social media sites when connected to the schools Wifi so it is important that parents set parental controls on their child's devices. Below are a few links to support parents.
Internet Safety
Internet Safety 101
CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) developed in 2000. CIPA sets requirements on schools and libraries who receive discounts on Internet access and connections through E-rate programs. The purpose is to make sure the schools meet certain requirements to stop students from surfing on inappropriate sites like chat rooms and downloading material, to name a few. This act also requires schools to education students on Internet Safety. What was interesting to me was that the rules and guidelines were updating in 2011. It has now been 8 years and the Internet has changed drastically. I wonder if they will be updating the rules again. Also, what about the schools that do not receive the discounts? What policies do they follow?
COPPA
COPPA (The Children´s Online Privacy and Protection Act) developed in 1998 and updated in 2013 are polices created to protect children using the Internet. This acts gives parents the control over what information websites can collect from their child under the age of 13. These updated are great and keep up with technology. But like stated above this was update in 2013, in the future will they update it again? This link is a video that outlines the changes put in place. I think that it is important for children to get adult approval before using an app or a site. However, when I am downloading apps for my students at school I see some of the questions that they have for parental control and I am sure any 13 year old would figure it out. I mean have you seen the videos of 1st graders asking Alexa to complete their homework problems for them?
Age Limit of 13
I feel that the age limit of 13 was an appropriate age when the Internet first started because not every home had access to the Internet or iPads and iPhones in their hands 24/7. Now since families are using the Internet for everything and children starting at the age of 8-9 have cell phones, I think they need to either educate more or have stricter polices. I know there is a screen that pops up that says you must be 13 or older, but kids these days are smarter than we think and will just make up a year to be able to enter these sites. I feel this goes back on Danah Boyd´s comment that COPPA teaches children to lie. I know when I was a kid, you might want to say I was a follower and everyone had a MySpace so I had a MySpace. I know as a teen I also entered chats on AIM and had no idea who I was talking too, I never went to meet anyone, but it is still scary to think about. My parents were just trying to protect me and I disobeyed. Thinking about kids now, it is so much easier to go on the Internet without having to have the dial up Internet ringing in the house which worries me more when I start to have children. |
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Parental Control
After being a teacher and hearing information on the news, I think parents need to be more informed of ways to protect their children and how to educate them. The schools have systems that protect our students from using social media sites when connected to the schools Wifi so it is important that parents set parental controls on their child's devices. Below are a few links to support parents.
Internet Safety
Internet Safety 101
You make a great point about Alexa. In my post I wrote about how easy it is for students under 13 to access sites they aren't supposed to. It's only getting easier and easier with the number of "smart" devices that are integrated into every part of our lives. Slapping a "13+" label on something (buried deep in ToS documents) seems like a less than half-hearted attempt to comply with laws. I agree with you that updates are needed to the legislation, but parents have to do their part to be aware and prepared to monitor student online activity.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment about thinking 13 is a good age to talk about this with kids. But, like you say, kids are walking around with iPhones at 8 or 9! So, the conversation needs to start much sooner.
ReplyDeleteHere's where I'll tell you a #ParentFail story: My twins, who were 7 at the time, like to watch videos on Youtube. I'm in the basement doing laundry and the kids are watching Youtube... And they come yelling down the stairs that they know where babies come out of a mom's body! I'm like WHAT?! Well, apparently, my daughter typed in "girl videos" (which, btw, is a perfectly harmless tag- she was looking for Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus or something) and what popped up was a woman giving birth. AND THEY WATCHED THE WHOLE FREAKING THING! *face palm* I'm just glad it wasn't anything WORSE than that!
After that, Youtube was off limits if I wasn't upstairs to monitor or help with searches. But, it's funny how parenthood really changes your entire perspective about how young is too young and how those numbers don't match!
Thanks for a great post,
Sarah
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI like your comment about Alexa as well. It's impressive that 1st graders figure out how to use these devices so quickly. While a parent should certainly intervene if they notice their children doing this by saying that on a test Alexa won't be there to help and they better figure out how to solve those problems without her, in a sense, as people grow up, they're essentially using Alexa in the same way to get quick answers without doing much thinking on their own.
Sarah-Thanks for sharing the story about YouTube. Oh my! It's good that you intervened to say that YouTube was off limits unless you were in the same room as them. As much as the internet seems like a new thing that parents have to deal with, to me it also relates to parents having to regulate what children watch on television. In the past, this seemed to be the issue that parents talked about.
I overall do not think there's a perfect solution to any of this, but adults need to stay up-to-date with technology and be there to help children use it appropriately.
You bring up a great point about how the internet has evolved yet these policies haven't been updated in a few years. It would be incredible if when an update occurred they actually looked for feedback from parents AND educators!
ReplyDeleteAmanda, your story about YouTube made me smile because it brought back a memory of my son when he was in 4th grade. In the late 1990's, we had one computer in the house with AOL dial up. I can still hear that all to familiar sound of launching the Internet. I was in the kitchen making dinner and my son was going to research a food for some social studies project. My son was pretty used to using a computer at that time because tech was a hobby of mine and I was frequently showing him how to find information for school. Sooooooooooooooo, as I was cooking I heard a loud, "Maaaaaaaaaa!" from across the house. I looked at the screen and first froze, then I finally closed the screen. Well, the food that my son was to research was called passion fruit. Yep, go ahead and laugh. I didn't bother to ask him what food he was searching because it was a school project, so what harm could come from a 4th grader looking up food? Silly me! By now anyone reading this reply could conjour up all sorts of images in his/her head about what images would come up when one searches passion fruit.
ReplyDeleteI tried to do the searching for my son, so eliminate those images from coming up again, but nope. Tech was still pretty new to my school at that time because for various reasons, so I wrote the teacher an old fashioned note. It stated something like my child could not complete his homework due to the pornographic images that kept coming up when he searched passion fruit. Can you please give him a new food to research?
My son went to the same school where I teach, so it was easy for me to then go talk to the teacher. She was happy to give him another food, wish I could remember what is was.
The point is, even though we try to give our students experiences through tech, just searching a simple innocent piece of fruit could result in 100's of images and text that are not meant to be seen by young students, in many cases, should just not be seen.
I am glad there are laws on the books to project kids, but they need to keep up or at least attempt to keep up with the times.