I found this article and it absolutely shocked me. We have been learning in our ECMP455 class how to incorporate technology into the class room and I think that youtube is a big part of that. In Victoria, Australia they have banned youtube.
State bans YouTube
By Stephen Withers
Thursday, 01 March 2007
Access to YouTube will be blocked from computers in public schools in Victoria, Australia.
The ban will be achieved by adding the popular video sharing site to the blacklist already applied to school's Internet feeds.
The primary reason for the ban is not (as you might expect) the waste of time and resources involved. Instead it is part of an anti-bullying policy.
Last year a group of male Victorian students gained notoriety when they attacked a female student and distributed video of the assault on DVD and YouTube.
Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan said "The Bracks government has never tolerated bullying in schools and this zero tolerance approach extends to the online world."
She also noted that it was parents' responsibility to prevent students posting harmful content from outside schools.
I don't see how one incident of bullying at a school should mean the banning of a useful resource. There are so many good messages on YouTube that if you teach children the difference, it is a great tool.
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2 comments:
The other thing is there are so many other ways to bully and even post video that you'll never be able to ban enough to block everything...It's a bandaid solution and certainly in my mind the wrong one. Banning doesn't teach us anything.
I"m surprised Australia has gone this way.
Hi Janine, I find it quite interesting, but not really surprising that it has been done. As Dean had said, it really is a band-aid fix. The learners will still, for the most part have access to YouTube and many other sites at home.
I do agree with you that YouTube has good messages, but along with those good, are the bad.
My daughter is nine years old and likes to watch music videos on YouTube. I am OK with that, but as she gets older, I am sure that she will come across things that I really don't want her to view. If I "ban" her from going onto YouTube, you can bet that she will go to her friends's across the street and check it out there!
So in my opinion, it comes down to educating these young learners, both at school and as a parent at home. As much as we want to protect them from all the "ugly" messages on the world wide web (and the wide world itself), we really can't. We can only do our best to teach them right from wrong and be there for them when they need us.
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