Comments on: Where in the school curriculum do students learn about liable laws?

By: David Muir

David Muir — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:55:00 +0000

Although Bebo has a minimum age of 13, Ewan unearthed a statistic somewhere that they are in fact starting much earlier. I can’t remember exactly how he phrased it but I think the implication was that significant numbers of 8 year olds have Bebo accounts. It does no harm therefore to start raising awareness in primary.

It goes up beyond secondary age too. On a different (but related?) issue, something was said last year in the PGDE(S) Computing section about MP3 downloads. Someone said something like, “Well, of course its illegal, but we all do it.” and there was much nodding of heads and knowing grins, from the educated, computer savvy, future teachers in the room.

Finally, and even more unrelated, I read in a Dilbert newsletter recently some advice to teenagers. Dogbert pointed out that it would be their parents that would be fined and imprisoned, so teenagers should use should use this to their advantage next time they were seeking more pocket money. Perhaps adding the threat of liable action will give teenagers even more leverage.

By: struan

struan — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 10:45:06 +0000

Thats a good point… I had posted with secondary education in mind. Bebo has a mnimum age of 13 anyway so wouldnt (shouldnt) be an issue in primary schools. The concept of Liable as a legal issue is a fairly mature one, and one that I think is more likley to be an issue for older kids anyway. There is a lot to be said for the naivity of youth. That is untill the youth desire to be “all grown up”.

By: John

John — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:16:53 +0000

Hi Struan,
In my school (primary) I don’t talk much about Bebo as none of the children in primary seven had heard of it when I asked the other week. But I do talk about internet safety and the fact that the children are representation themselves and their school. I emphasize that blogging or publishing on the web is not private, not msn or text-messaging it is public. I explain that I expect the same behaviour online as I would in the real world.
I would say that the children are very aware of what they can and shouldn’t do online.

In the same way as they know they should not hit or call name, some may still stray when away from my class, but hopefully most have a fair grounding in sensible online behaviour without explicitly discussing ‘liable’.

By: Ollie Bray

Ollie Bray — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:00:33 +0000

This is a very good point and I am going to include this within my grow idea for an internet safety lesson (perhaps it will have to be a whole course?) We are trying to put together a couple of stand alone lesson on Internet Safety for Secondary pupils – I think your beebo exercise is an important lesson. Have you got any other ideas / resources that we could steal? See you soon, Ollie.

PS: I finally get to go back out in my sea boat next weekend!