We continue to see some interesting and useful research coming from the US. Recently four essays have been published by the Berkman Centre (Harvard) as part of the Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative* which involves some big names including Insafe eSafety bulletin July 2010 danah boyd, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. We can expect a number of publications over the next few months in three areas:

1. Privacy, policy and reputation

2. Youth created content and information quality

3. Risky behaviours and online safety

danah boyd has been coordinating this last area and the four essays which have just been released cover the following four areas:

1. Moving beyond one size fits all with digital citizenship – this essay considers who should teach digital citizenship, how and when it should be taught and what some of the challenges there are for educators who try to do this in the classroom. It suggests that there should be at least five stages of development for schools regarding digital learning and that any approach to delivering this topic should consider carefully where the school is on this journey. http://publius.cc/moving_beyond_one_size_fits_all_digital_citizenship 

2. Evaluating online safety programs – this is an area that has been debated at length by the Insafe network in recent months. Most people agree that we need to evaluate our online safety initiatives and resources, but how to do it effectively is a challenge. The essay talks about the importance of evaluating such programs and uses work in suicide prevention as a platform. http://publius.cc/evaluating_online_safety_programs

3. The future of internet safety education: critical lessons from four decades of youth drug abuse prevention – this essay recognises the speed with which internet safety resources have been created as a result of a great deal of negative press coverage about predators, paedophiles and cyberbullying incidents online. It suggests that before more money is spent on developing new resources, we ought to carefully consider what we are trying to do and then direct resources towards the programs which are most likely to deliver  the desired outcomes. http://publius.cc/future_internet_safety_education_critical_lessons_four_decades_youth_drug_abuse_prevention

4. Online safety: Why research is important – in the same way as the previous two essays, the focus here is on the evaluation of awareness raising programs in order to assess the impact that they make. Research also provides vital information on the dynamics and scope of online risks so that appropriate programs can be developed. Written by David Finkelhor, Janis Wolak and Insafe eSafety bulletin July 2010 Kimberley Mitchell, this essay reminds us that “the standard of practice in almost every domain of education and human service is evidence based and that while the concept of internet safety is relatively new, we have an opportunity to integrate such a standard into its development at an early stage rather than trying to incorporate this at a later stage.” http://publius.cc/online_safety_why_research_important 

*  http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/digitalnatives/policy