Common Sense Media has just release the results of a new national poll on how teens use social networking, and how parents perceive their teens’ online behavior. The disparity is surprising. You can read the full poll results, a summary, or just check out a chart on the Common Sense Media website.
There is a great posting by social networking expert danah boyd regarding cyberbullying as it relates to the Lori Drew case. She says, “Lori Drew abused her power as a knowledgeable adult by leveraging her adult knowledge of psychology to humiliate and torment a teen girl. Put another way, Lori Drew engaged in psychological and emotional child abuse. Child abuse includes the psychological or emotional mistreatment of a child. Unfortunately, most legal statutes focus on sexual and physical abuse and neglect because emotional abuse is very hard to substantiate and prosecute. But realistically, she should’ve been tried with child abuse, not a computer crime.” What do you think?
The article is definitely worth a look – the comments are insightful too! Find it at: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/11/30/reflections_on.html
Do you know teen bloggers who would be interested in blogging for YALSA? Do you know teens who like to write about books, music, movies, etc. and would be a perfect candidate for a position as a YALSA blogger? Are you a teen that would like to write for the YALSA blog? If so, now is your chance.
At their meeting on Monday, January 14, the YALSA Board of Directors voted to include teens in the YALSA cadre of bloggers.
What do this mean? Well, first a teen that is interested in blogging for YALSA needs to fill out and submit a teen blogger application. The application will be reviewed and teen applicants will be notified of the decision.
Once a teen blogger is accepted, a blogging account will be setup for that teen and information on how to use YALSA’s blogging software will be provided.
This is a really exciting opportunity for teen writers. If you have any questions about being a teen blogger – or helping a teen in your community become a blogger – contact Linda Braun, the YALSA Blog Manager, at lbraun@leonline.com
Anastasia Goodstein has an excellent post today over at Ypulse.com on yesterday’s news from MySpace. Of course we all want teens to be safe online, but she points out the opportunity MySpace missed. Check it out!
I just read in a previous issue of Library Journal about a public library in New Zealand that has its own recording studio. Cool! The studio, called Beatbooth, was built with a budget of about $3,000 and opened in May. Users can record their productions and burn finished tracks to CD. They charge about $3.50 per hour (US) to use it. What a way to take unused space and make it into something that meet’s users’ needs! The other cool thing – it’s a partnership with a nonprofit music organization, the library, and a music store.
