Family University is an Eye-Opener
| May 18, 2006 Redding Pilot By Alexandra Farsun |
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The evening of frank discussions and serious topics was kicked off by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who spoke about online social networking sites, particularly Myspace.com.
Students and parents were able to pick two breakout sessions, which touched on a range of issues from stress management to the dangers of online social networking sites.
Nina Corcoran, an eighth grade student from Easton, and her mother, Diane, were among those who attended the event.
“I’m planning on doing sports next year, so I picked the one called ‘Just Breathe’,” said Nina, “because it talks about stress and homework and stuff.” As for Ms. Corcoran, she her workshops focused on the transitions from middle school to high school, and from high school to college.
“I have a son who is a junior now,” she said, adding Nina will be entering the high school next year.
Freshman Jake Browley and his mom, Randi, came “to hopefully learn a thing or two,” said Ms. Browley. The mother and son pair picked workshops focused on Myspace.com, and one focusing on consequences of bad decisions.
Blumenthal
Mr. Blumenthal said Myspace.com is one of many social networking sites, offering an interactive network of photos, blogs, user profiles, groups and an internal e-mail system. As of February, Myspace.com ranked fifth most popular English language Web site.Mr. Blumenthal is pushing for Myspace to make some changes, such as age verification of its users. He added Myspace.com alone has about 75 million profiles on it, and 15% of all the display ads on the Internet.
“I’ve been hearing a lot from parents about Myspace.com, and what they have seen for themselves on there; sexually explicit images and reports of sexual assaults,” said Mr. Blumenthal. “This is an issue that simply cannot be dismissed or wished away. It can be a source of tremendous benefit, and real pitfalls,” he said, “And this is only one of a number of social networking sites — Facebook, Friendster, Xanga,” he said, adding the sites provides kids a chance to interact with one another, but also give sexual predators an opportunity to make contact with children.
Mr. Blumenthal also referenced an incident in Newington where a young girl met a man through Myspace, and he has been accused of sexually assaulting her.
“The fact is that these sites have real life consequences. Employers go to these sites and view the photos of you guzzling beer half dressed, or less, in all sorts of poses you’d wish to forget. College admissions offices look at these sites, too,” he said. “There are lots of consequences on what you do in this public forum. People who think they’re interacting privately on these sites, think again. This is the most public of venues,” he said. “It’s a very public forum because establishing a profile becomes so readily accessible to anyone,” he said.
His concern, said Mr. Blumenthal, is as an officer of the law, and as a parent with young kids. “Bad things can happen, because, number one, it’s so easy to pose as something you’re not. It’s so easy to meet the 14-year-old threshold (the age required to join Myspace.com) and pose as someone who’s 17 or 18 years old. It’s easy to pose as a 17- or 18-year-old male when you are really 27 or 28 years old. It’s very public, and very unverifiable,” said Mr. Blumenthal.
A few reforms have been proposed, he said, and Connecticut has been leading the effort for these kinds of sites to be more accountable. Among the reforms are better age verification, policing of sexually explicit materials, and keeping sexual predators off these sites. The proposals, he said, have not yet been adopted.
Myspace has offered free blocking software, but hasn’t provided instructions “as clearly as they should have,” Mr. Blumenthal said. Instructions on how to use this software are available on Mr. Blumenthal’s Web site, www.ct.gov/ag.
Myspace seminar
Mark Pastor, Easton’s youth officer, along with Rich Colangelo, a prosecutor, gave two workshops — one for students and one just for parents — about Myspace.com. “This isn’t a session to get you in trouble. Just to make you think about some things,” said Officer Pastor.During the workshop for students, Officer Pastor asked by a show of hands how many students have a Myspace.com page. More than half raised their hands.
Officer Pastor pulled up a page on Myspace.com, which he had created that afternoon. The picture was of a young girl, clearly under the required joining age of 14, named “Cheryl.”
“And this isn’t cracking a code, it’s just setting up an account,” said Officer Pastor. “The idea is when people put things on this site, it can be viewed by anyone. It becomes public information.”
Officer Pastor said he has visited many Myspace.com pages of Joel Barlow High School students. He has seen pictures, he said, of students breaking the law on their own or their friend’s Myspace.com pages. He added posting such pictures gives the police photographic evidence. “If there is a picture of someone underage drinking a beer you’re in trouble,” he said, adding, “and that’s exactly what’s going on.”
Mr. Colangelo added if someone who is underage is convicted of possession of alcohol by a minor, they could lose their driver’s license for a period of time.
Officer Pastor said he’s “not an advocate” that Myspace.com is the cause of all the trouble of the world. The problem is the people “who aren’t making the right decisions. You can say a lot of things to people when you’re not face to face. It’s easy to say stuff on the Internet and very difficult to say them in person,” he said. Officer Pastor added sometimes, you may not know who you are saying things to.
“There are two registered sex offenders in Redding, and there is one in Easton. You can be as safe and as careful as you want, but it would be a heck of a lot easier to pick out who they are (online) if they had a picture with ‘sex offender’ written on their forehead, or their e-mail said sex offender at...,” said Officer Pastor.
Among some tips for students and parents, such as limiting the amount of personal information included in user profiles, Officer Pastor suggested a Web site wiredsafety.com as a resource for parents and students..
Emergency room realities
Dr. B. Bryan Jordan, associate chairman of Bridgeport Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine and a Reddingite, focused on poor decisions that wind up in the emergency room, particularly drinking and driving. Dr. Jordan had a slide show presentation that also touched on and addressed poor choices. From smashed cars to a patient on an emergency room table, some of Dr. Jordan’s pictures caused the room to go silent.Poor choices, said Dr. Jordan, could be fitting too many people in a car, excessive drinking or drunk driving.
Dr. Jordan depicted three scenarios in which a poor decision, such as drunk driving that resulted in a car accident, can lead to death.
“You could die on impact, within the next hour if the injuries are not addressed, or weeks later due to organ failure or infection,” he said. In car accidents, said Dr. Jordan, 50% of people who are ejected from a car don’t live past the impact.
“You have to remember, there are three things that stop in a car accident — the car, you, and your internal organs and brain. They stop against the body,” said Dr. Jordan.
He reminded the audience that death is not the only thing that could be the result of a car accident. Long-term injury could also stem from a car accident, he said.
“If you break a bone in a car accident, and it’s a long break, you’re never going to quite be the same. You may not walk like you used to, or run like you used to. And also, the spine and brain are not forgiving. If you are without oxygen, you have about three to four minutes before serious brain injury can occur.”
Dr. Jordan said he hope parents and students walk way from his session with a better understanding of where their bad choices could make them end up.
“Drinking and driving has dire consequences immediately, if not lasting consequences. It can be a life changing event for the person involved, and others can be affected as well,” he said.
Other topics at Family University covered sexuality, bullying, substance abuse, as well as other issues of interest to students and families. The program was sponsored by the Easton-Redding Community Coalition, Joel Barlow PTSA, Easton PTA, John Read PTA, PTA Council, RYASAP, HVCASA and DMHAS.