Monday, October 17, 2011

BLOG-1

Today I chose to use Amazon to find a book and read some of it to tell about it. The book I chose to look at was A Young Adult's Guide to Safety in the Digital Age by Jeff Sechler. The copyright date on this book is 2010 by Sunbury Press. This book is divided into three parts: Personal Safety Risks, Personal Property Risks, and Professional Risks. Within these three parts rests nine chapters. Chapter one is the chapter that was available for me to read.

This chapter is titled "Sexual and Online Predators." I saw this chapter as extremely interesting and easy to read. The author was not wasting time getting to the meat of the matter. Points were made directly and in much detail. It seems that the author's research was in-depth. First he talked about how most people have "friends" on social sites that they do not really know, but through other people. "Studies have shown that one in four girls in the United States reported they met a stranger off of the Internet in person." This quote pushes the chapter onward to a discussion of sexual predators. First in defining a sexual predator we see that would be "someone who either has already been convicted of or pled guilty to committing a sexually oriented offense or is likely to commit sexually oriented offenses in the future." Then Sechlar describes four different types of sexual predators and their approaches to their prey. Who is at risk? Everyone. There are many different precautions that need to be taken when using the internet to keep someone completely safe. "Predators can be found in just about every nook and cranny of the Internet."

This book goes on in chapters two through nine to talk about things like cyber-bullying, Internet addictions, identity theft, viruses, online reputation, and even copyright. Based on this single chapter that I read I could see this book direction my instruction in such a way that I am making sure to cover the bases I need to. The author does not waste words in describing these threats and makes them clear in a way that is easy to read. I think that reading this book would make me much more aware of the possible threats on the Internet and possibly even make me rethink future requirements that I might currently have in mind of my students that could be dangerous. This relates directly to chapter six of the Williamson text on Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues.

1 comment:

  1. Creative idea to go to Amazon this way. I looked at the book, as well. It does appear to have a very readable style and good information.

    Thanks! :-)

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