|
||||
| School “text ed” program launched |
| Culture |
|
The Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection is launching a pilot program this month aimed at teaching children the potential dangers of texting, such as being vulnerable to sexually explicit messages and images, luring, invasion of privacy and harassment. “The explosion of texting and cell phones is something teachers haven’t been well-equipped to address,” spokeswoman Signy Arnason told CanWest News Service. “That’s the purpose of this: to get in early and tackle these issues before we’re faced with a major problem.” The course is called textED.ca. A pilot program is being introduced to 100 grade seven classrooms across the country. Based on the feedback received, it is expected that a revised final version of the course will be fully implemented in September. Carolynne Pitura, a guidance counsellor at a junior high school in Winnipeg, welcomes the new program. “Every school has issues with the Internet and with Facebook and with cell-phone messaging,” she said. “If we can have more education, more intervention, and be more proactive rather than reactive, it will benefit all of us.” “We’re seeing so much harm come to adolescents within their own peer circle,” said Arnason, “whereby they’re sending nude images or inappropriate messages [by phone], and those are being transferred to a larger group of individuals.” In the U.S., a recent survey commissioned by the Associated Press and MTV found that about 30 per cent of young people aged 14 to 24 were involved in “sexting” – the sharing of sexually explicit images and videos via cell phone. Eighteen per cent said friends had sent them naked pictures of themselves. “The goal,” Arnason said, “isn’t to be arresting these kids for distributing what technically is child pornography. The goal is to intervene as soon as possible. . . . So what police are very excited about is that this is a real prevention tool.” The courts generally take the view that if two teenagers who are at least 16 – the age of consent – exchange sexual pictures and do not pass them on, they will not be charged with distributing pornography. A just-released study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 66 per cent of children in the U.S. aged eight to 18 owned a cell phone in 2009. It also found that high school students average more than 90 minutes a day sending or receiving text messages. “The technology is here to stay, so we have to teach kids to use it properly,” said Bernard Lord, president of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and a former premier of New Brunswick. The association is helping to fund the textED.ca program. “If a young person feels uncomfortable about any communications they may be engaged in, or if they ever feel threatened in any way,” Lord said, “they should feel completely comfortable letting a trusted adult know about the situation.” |
