mistrustmusic's posterous http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com Most recent posts at mistrustmusic's posterous posterous.com Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:09:12 -0700 Young kids and Facebook #2 - Parents strike back http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/young-kids-and-facebook-2-parents-strike-back http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/young-kids-and-facebook-2-parents-strike-back More on from my recent post about Young kids and Facebook, where I read on my local school's newsletter that some of the 7-11 year olds were going on Facebook. I decided to take matters into my own hands and send an email to the headteacher, asking if they knew there was information readily available on the internet about the pros and cons of children using Facebooks and other social networking sites. I also suggested that they look at sites like Thinkyouknow and maybe list them in one of the newsletters. To my surprise, I got an email back the next day, thanking me for pointing out what I did, and then got a mention in the next newsletter, in a paragraph telling parents about the Thinkyouknow website. So, a big tick for Parent Power! It's probably the first time I've written to the school about anything - probably because it bothers me so much. We'll probably never know if any of the parents take notice of it, but it's a start. However, I'm now waiting for the backlash from parents saying "how dare you tell me how to bring up my child!" It actually makes you wonder why the Local Education Authority haven't issued guidelines to school about things like using Facebook etc. Surely they're the people who have more influence. I think I'm going to have to suggest going in and talking to the staff and kids about all this.... As you may know if you're following my ramblings regularly, I am a Twitterer as well as a Wordpress blogger. As such, I'm interested to read that Wordpress have finally got round to adding a Twitter widget to the list available to those of us with Wordpress.com accounts. I won't go into details about what the widget will do as there's more information about in Wordpress.com's blog post here - "Bring Twitter to Your Blog". However, I'm still not convinced about having all my eggs in one basket - in other words, will people prefer to follow my tweets in Twitter, and my blogs in Wordpress? And finally - for those people who don't know me, or are just interested in the ramblings about Facebook etc., you might like to know that I also make music in my spare time. In fact, I've been quite busy recently with the music-making. I''ve been making my own tunes for a few years, but a chance meeting with a DJ from the Big Chill organisation put me in touch with New Zealand band Pitch Black. I asked if I could do a remix for them, just because 1. I like their music, and 2. for a bit of experience of doing a remix. I sent it in, and they liked it so much they released it on their EP of the title track of their last album, and it's on their new remix CD out in May. Because of that, I was asked to do a remix for Big Chill band Animat for their next single - that's out early May too. Not bad eh? I'm on the lookout for some more remixes to do, but so far, so good! If you'd like to hear the remixes, please go to www.myspace.com/mistrust The tracks on Myspace are: Pitch Black - Rude Mechanicals (mistrust - ambiotik remix) Animat - Deep Space Lament (mistrust remix)

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Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:20:20 -0700 Young kids and Facebook http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/young-kids-and-facebook http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/young-kids-and-facebook It really comes to something when your child's Head Teacher has to put a notice in the weekly school newsletter telling parents about the dangers of letting their little ones go on the internet unsupervised. Apparently some of the 7 - 11 year olds at this particular primary school are regulars on Facebook, and are even posting information about which school they go to! Seven years old! I won't go into why these young kids would want to even go on Facebook, but maybe someone could explain in more detail than me. What I want ask is why their parents are even letting them go on. Apologies to some of the parents of this school who may read this message  (if you even know that I blog!), but how on earth can you let your child say that they were born in 1987? Did you know that Facebook only allow over-13s on? I know that younger kids go on there (my 11 y.o. daughter is on it - completely supervised and not allowed to post any messages/comments without me or mrs mistrust approving it first). It makes me wonder if these parents who let their kids go on the internet unsupervised actually about parental controls, or even that they should really be supervising their kids when they're on the web. I'm not saying what me and mrs m are doing with our own kids by supervising them when they're on the web, but as I've said before now in my post "A is for Amazon", I really think it's necessary to let you kids learn the language of the web, and get a grip on new technology, new ways of communicating. However, apart from needing a balance between going on the web and doing real-life things, kids really need to know the pros and cons of going on the internet as soon as possible. My kids are hopefully fairly sensible when they go on the internet, because we haven't stifled them and stopped them going on every site they come across. To me it's like teaching kids to learn to ride a bike. You don't just put a 7 year old on a new bike on a main road, and say "off you go", and let them get on with it. You teach them how to ride the bike, put stabilisers on so they don't fall off, and you teach them what dangers to look out for - "don't go on that busy road until you're old enough", "don't go too fast or you'll fall off". So. back to these kids at the local primary school... it must be a complete lack of ignorance about what's out there on the web, or a couldn't care less attitude, that lets a 7 year old child go on Facebook and post details of which school they attend. Which is worrying. The school is holding a session in a few weeks showing parents how to help their kids improve maths and literacy skills. They should also be holding a session about how to improve parents' and children's awareness of using the internet safely and securely. Finally, if you have a child or want to know more about child safety on the web, please visit Thinkyouknow, which I came across a while ago, and which should help you enormously! Moving my blog... No more posts on here... I've moved my blog and website to  www.mistrustmusic.co.uk

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