NetSafe has continued to build upon its research relationship with Ilene and Michael Berson of the College of Education at the University of South Florida. In July 2007, Ilene and Michael Berson, Donald Falls, and Shreya Desai, presented at the James F. Ackerman Colloquium at Purdue University. The 2007 Colloquium theme was “Educating for Citizenship in Digital and Synthetic Worlds: Privacy, Protection, and Participation”. NetSafe’s Research Manager, John Fenaughty collaborated (in absentee) in the development of the presentation: “An Analysis of Electronic Media to Prepare Children and Youth for Safe and Ethical Practices in Digital Environments”.
Cybersafety issues, existing (or beginning) as they do in Cyberspace, have increasingly been addressed via this same electronic medium. Electronic media offer great opportunities to develop effective intervention to address the range of cybersafety issues. However, the Bersons, Falls, and Desai point out that children and young people have particular developmental needs that require consideration by those developing electronic safety-directed electronic media. The key issue centres on the cognitive and emotional development of children and young people. This development affects decision making. Decision making in Cyberspace plays a major role in risk exposure and risk management. In order to maximise the benefits of electronic media, the Bersons developed a rubric for conceptualising key issues in using electronic media to promote Cybersafety messages to children.
The rubric is an exciting development. It offers a useful, coherent and valid way to assess and develop Cybersafety media for children. Part of the Hectors World™ project was assessed by independent reviewers using the rubric. The results were very positive, so much so that in the presentation Hector’s World™ received a special case study!
Dr Michael J. Berson and Dr Ilene R. Berson made this comment about the results:
“In our analysis of cybersafety initiatives in schools Hector's World was identified as the most appealing and exciting materials to successfully engage children in assessing risky situations, developing appropriate coping techniques, and practicing responsible decision making online. Hector’s World’s episodes not only foster protective factors through a variety of strategies, but they also address risk factors by promoting and modeling behavior changes with friendly and engaging characters. Students have repeated opportunity to rehearse clear and specific skills that promote decision making, perspective-taking, alternative solutions, and positive peer interactions via high quality instructional resources that can be used by parents, educators, community safety officers, and other child-serving professionals.”
More information about the rubric will be available upon the publication of the associated article. If you’d like to know more about the Rubric please feel free to contact John Fenaughty who will be able to liaise with the Bersons regarding your questions.
National media coverage has recently focused on whether playing violent video games results in increased offline violence in our young people. Superintendent Bill Harrison ignited the debate with his observation that youth violence rates have jumped throughout the Western world in recent years, coinciding with the rise of new technologies such as the Xbox and PlayStation 3.