Thursday, April 5, 2007

Censorship? Freedom of Speech? Edusafe?

Recently I posted about Kathy Sierra and how in the corporate world there is cyber bullying. Recently on CNN they interviewed Kathy about the experience and asked for some insight to her. The reporter stated that Kathy still believes the Freedom of Speech should still be preserved and self regulation is the way to go.
I agree to an extent. First, the Freedom of Speech that we are granted as Americans is not intended to the freedom to harm others. It's the freedom to respond to situations and share your thoughts/views and opinions. If your thoughts/views/opinions are to harm someone emotionally or physically, well then that is not a respected use of your freedom. No, I'm not talking about the emotional harm of critiquing a play, a new product or thought. I'm talking about when you scare someone or slander someone to the point that you take away their sense of personal safety.
But I also believe in censorship. Don't scream yet - listen to me. No, I don't think books should be banned or certain blogs. However, I do believe that if comments are made to your blog that are inappropriate, then delete them. Not inappropriate such as they disagree with you, but inappropriate to where they are off topic/relevancy. If someone comments on here and totally disagrees with me, well I should not have opened myself up to that. However, if someone leaves a comment that is rude and cruel that is totally off based and uses profane language and that I find threatening, well then I have the right to delete it and keep my blog clean. That's what I mean by censorship.
At the same time, Steve Dembo made a comment that there needs to be an EDUSAFE tools out there. I totally agree. The EDUSAFE tools would allow teachers to teach using these skills completely integrated, teaching the ethics of such tools by modeling proper use, and keep students safe from the inappropriate content or people of the world. Hmmm, I wonder - is there a complete package of EDUSAFE tools or do we have to piece them together?
As a libra, I see the flip side of both coins. I love my freedoms, but at the same time, I don't want to worry about the lack of morals and ethics being shared with my son or other students just because we are trying to teach them the 21st Century skills needed for the future.

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