Comments on: Episode 24 – Running from the Law http://digitalcampus.tv/2008/04/08/episode-24-running-from-the-law/ A biweekly discussion of how digital media and technology are affecting learning, teaching, and scholarship at colleges, universities, libraries, and museums. Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:51:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Anonymous http://digitalcampus.tv/2008/04/08/episode-24-running-from-the-law/comment-page-1/#comment-297 Anonymous Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:07:08 +0000 http://digitalcampus.tv/?p=29#comment-297 I think there is a problem in censoring the internet. The first problem is that kids are generally smarter than adults in this field. In 5th grade I managed to bypass my parents' work firewall to access sites I wanted. In High School we used school computers with its fast internet connections (since home was still dial-up) to pirate music. When they added firewalls to stop access to numerous (useful) sites we printed out fliers on school computers with clear instructions on how to use proxies and bypass them. In college we bypassed attempts of our university to monitor us by using encryption and pseudoanonymous techniques so you can't find where the packet originates. My point is that blocking fails and always will. I am all for education about internet safety and believe that schools need to worry about what their students are doing. But, blocking just makes a nice challenge for students to bypass. They would benefit far more from making it harder to hide computer screens and making kids understand they are in a school context and must use computers in that way. As for sexual harassment, etc. online, half of this conduct is done by other kids and young adults as a joke. There is a huge subculture throughout image boards and gaming which will spam "tits or gtfo" and ask for nudes or make sexual innuendo as a matter of course. Obviously we need to teach our children not to post nudes (they still haven't learned this...). But, we need to get away from alarmism online. Eventually we will have to forget the moral outrage at how people use anonymity and instead focus on real areas of safety. I think older adults who have no exposure to this don't understand and even if they find it distasteful they have to teach children the difference between trolling and threat. I think there is a problem in censoring the internet. The first problem is that kids are generally smarter than adults in this field. In 5th grade I managed to bypass my parents’ work firewall to access sites I wanted. In High School we used school computers with its fast internet connections (since home was still dial-up) to pirate music. When they added firewalls to stop access to numerous (useful) sites we printed out fliers on school computers with clear instructions on how to use proxies and bypass them. In college we bypassed attempts of our university to monitor us by using encryption and pseudoanonymous techniques so you can’t find where the packet originates.

My point is that blocking fails and always will. I am all for education about internet safety and believe that schools need to worry about what their students are doing. But, blocking just makes a nice challenge for students to bypass. They would benefit far more from making it harder to hide computer screens and making kids understand they are in a school context and must use computers in that way.

As for sexual harassment, etc. online, half of this conduct is done by other kids and young adults as a joke. There is a huge subculture throughout image boards and gaming which will spam “tits or gtfo” and ask for nudes or make sexual innuendo as a matter of course. Obviously we need to teach our children not to post nudes (they still haven’t learned this…). But, we need to get away from alarmism online. Eventually we will have to forget the moral outrage at how people use anonymity and instead focus on real areas of safety. I think older adults who have no exposure to this don’t understand and even if they find it distasteful they have to teach children the difference between trolling and threat.

]]> By: Lincoln Mullen http://digitalcampus.tv/2008/04/08/episode-24-running-from-the-law/comment-page-1/#comment-296 Lincoln Mullen Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:29:16 +0000 http://digitalcampus.tv/?p=29#comment-296 The episode about open-source licenses sounds valuable. I hope you'll do it sometime. The episode about open-source licenses sounds valuable. I hope you’ll do it sometime.

]]> By: Kelly Sutton http://digitalcampus.tv/2008/04/08/episode-24-running-from-the-law/comment-page-1/#comment-295 Kelly Sutton Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:16:41 +0000 http://digitalcampus.tv/?p=29#comment-295 Hey Old-timers, Thanks for the mention during the podcast! Listened to it and think it's great that there are some professors with the times. We have some more opinionated pieces coming down the tubes this week. Keep your eyes out for those. It will be interesting to see if you guys agree with us. :) Hey Old-timers,

Thanks for the mention during the podcast! Listened to it and think it’s great that there are some professors with the times.

We have some more opinionated pieces coming down the tubes this week. Keep your eyes out for those. It will be interesting to see if you guys agree with us. :)

]]>