Most middle school students are not yet sexually active.  Many of them are not even on the skinny end of the sexually active bell curve (that is, they don’t have boyfriends or girlfriends yet, they haven’t had a first kiss, they might not have even started their periods or had their [...]

There is an article in yesterday’s NYTimes called Q. Did you ever smoke pot? A. It’s Complicated, that is far better than I feared.  It’s about whether or not to tell a preteen or teenager about one’s own drug use - either as a doctor or as a parent.  Many of the same issues and [...]

I recently read Live Nude Girl: my life as an object by Kathleen Rooney.  The book chronicles Rooney’s experiences in being a live nude model, discusses the history of nude modeling, and delves into the psychology of nudity in general.  I quite enjoyed the book.
What I felt was missing completely, and quite a glaring oversight [...]

Over the last two weeks I’ve been talking about a pretty fabulous report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education about the potential ethical issues many teenagers face when interacting online and in social media - and the benefits and pitfalls associated with the issues.  This report is one of the best academic reviews of [...]

Today I continue our conversation on how the ethical issues that present themselves to young people using social media by talking about participation.  The start of our conversation is here, and links to the other posts on the same topic are all in the comments section below.
The Harvard Graduate School of Education report defines participation [...]

I am still writing about the Harvard Graduate School of Education report on young people, ethics, and social media.  My series started with an introduction, and I have so far delved into the topics of identity, privacy, and ownership/authorship.  I am boiling down the report to a quicker read for those who don’t want to [...]

Busy, busy day today, folks, so if you want background on today’s post, go look at yesterday’s post.
The report that I’ve been talking about presents the complex issue of ownership and authorship thusly:
Offline, ownership and authorship are well-define concepts, protected by law and reinforced by cultural norms in corporations and schools…  For various reasons, online, [...]

On Monday I introduced a report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education called Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media (go to Monday’s post to download the report in its entirety).  The authors contend that there are five primary issues to address and investigate at the intersection of these three forces:

identity (which I [...]

Yesterday I talked about a 2008 report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education called Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media (go to Monday’s post to download the article in its entirety).  The authors identified five key issues in regards to the topic:

identity
privacy
ownership and authorship
credibility
participation

This report worked to provide a balanced perspective on [...]

The Internet is a huge, hulking thing with so many nooks and crannies it can be hard to know where you are, much less know where your children are.  I have heard many horror stories about the Internet, and just as many stories of supportive networks and friends who use online [...]