Comments on: Befriending My Mum on Facebook

By: All that Twitters is not Gold « EHON CHAN

All that Twitters is not Gold « EHON CHAN — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:05:46 +0000

[...] forward is to promote digital citizenship and safety online (as we do, offline). The good news is, young people are actually have a better idea on cybersafety than most adults! Also, if we put these negative events in context to the immense power of technology, restricting a [...]

By: ehon

ehon — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:26:17 +0000

Well said, Brisbaneboy! :)

By: Brisbaneboy

Brisbaneboy — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:13:35 +0000

You know they really are. And this is an obscene situation in my mind. There is a charter that some indigenous communities have developed which states:

Indigenous Australian culture is a culture of responsibility and reciprocity. ours is a culture of law and learning. Ours is a culture of transmission of knowledge. Our culture is our strength.

We will take our responsibilities to our children. We will not allow other people to use the face that our children are indigenous as an excuse for educational failure.

We will understand and be sensitive to the difficulties facing our children and we are going to find every support to deal with them, but we will not allow these difficulties to be an excuse for failure.

It will not be an excuse for the children.

It will not be an excuse for the parents or community.

It will not be an excuse for the principal and the teachers.

It will not be an excuse for the education system and all of us who say we are committed to Indigenous reform.

Now that statement focuses on education. However, i see absolutely no reason why this shouldn't apply to every parents, in every aspect of their child's life, and the difficulties we face - such as the difficulties in educating your child about online and offline safety. Parents must be sensitive to the difficulties facing our children, and find every support to deal with them, but not allow them to be an excuse for failure.

You fail your children, you fail society.

By: ehon

ehon — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:37:39 +0000

Good points, Brisbane Boy. You definitely bring up a few great suggestions and food for thoughts. I think we're moving towards a more chaotic world where parents are expecting their roles of educating and bringing up their children to other members of the community – caretaker, babysitter and especially the schools.

By: Brisbaneboy

Brisbaneboy — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:49:54 +0000

Yeah... I'm not sure how much traction you are going to achieve recommending parents are friended after a certain age. I think younger children though this might not be a bad idea, where they might lack a degree of common sense and understanding that might be required. Perhaps this is a case where fathers friend sons and mothers friend daughters. They are going to know more about what it was like being a kid at that age then the other parent.

Though I agree I wouldn't have done this when I was a teenager - not that facebook was really around then, or at least I didn't have one. And this wasn't all that long ago! Even if it is a father figure for a son, there may be issues the son is experiencing where they wont want a father figure 'looming'.

Communication is the key you are absolutely right Ehon. Conversations are difficult, but that's what being a parent is about, and accepting the difficult situation and educating your child to have the smarts to manage the situation independently.

What frustrates me is those that don't. It would seem to me that we live in a world where too many people won't go far enough... won't do what they know is right... what they believe. I don't know how or why it got this way but the world has become so complicated, to involve yourself in someone else's problems is to invite them needlessly on yourself.

How did that happen?