Internet Safety Reflection

I read "Rated A" by Marvin J. Ashton about the ratings put on media and how we need to focus on only those that we can honestly give an "A" rating. Media should be uplifting and provide opportunities for greater learning and sharing of ideas rather than filled with degrading material. I only watched 15 minutes of videos, but the ones I watched showed how violence in schools was caused by bullying and backbiting through online forms of communication. From these videos and all the readings, I think the most important thing I took away from it is the reality that media can be very damaging if used incorrectly. I never knew how seriously people's lives are ruined by misusing media. It makes me much more determined to protect children I interact with from the dangers of media by instructing them on how to use it and how to protect themselves from bad situations.

The person I talked to about media was my mom. She knew that it is important not to share personal information online because of the broad audience of people who have access to it. She is even very leery of Facebook because of the information some people include in their profiles and the accessibility of that information. I shared with her some of the seriously bad situations that people get themselves into that I learned about from the videos. I also shared that there are lots of good things about online forms of communication such as missionary work and spread of other good information. She agreed with what I shared and acknowledged that there is a lot of good to online resources and tools as long as they are used correctly. It didn't surprise her that people found themselves in bad situations from simply innocent ventures into chatrooms and other online communication. I think it was good for her to hear more about the good things that come from media especially in talking about what church leaders have said as far as encouraging us to use it for missionary work. I think she may make more of an effort to use her Facebook for that purpose. It is a GREAT missionary tool! Overall, it was a great conversation about the abundance and variety of pros and cons of media, specifically online communication.