Adolescent Safety on the Internet

The article examines the opportunities and limitations of the coping behavior of children and teenagers on the Internet and the assistance that they receive from significant adults (parental mediation) in the context of the new developmental social situation, which is mediated by modern information and communication technologies, and in particular the Internet. The study was conducted on the basis of the EUKidsOnline II methodology in 11 regions in seven Russian federal districts (1,025 “parent–child” pairs). The study discovered that the most common risks include sexual and negative content, fraud and theft of personal information, as well as meetings with online acquaintances. The features of experiences and mechanisms used to cope with online risks depend on the predominant activity that a particular teenager pursues online, so that if children are focused on their studies online, they are less exposed to this risk. However, they are more deeply disturbed by such situations and remain so for longer periods of time, and they more frequently employ passive strategies to cope with them. So-called “content consumers” are at the greatest risk of encountering sexual content on the network. These users actively pursue various activities online, including search engines. They experience fewer negative emotions, and they often actively try to cope with the problem while rarely using offline support. There are few opportunities for parental mediation; these include blocking content and reducing the probability that children, and in particular the teenagers that are focused on their studies, will encounter risks. The strategy of explanation and encouragement is effective for teens who pursue various activities on the Internet, and is associated with a more realistic assessment of risk and young people's active use of coping and social support strategies. For the modern teenager, the Internet is a complex psychological “tool,” which he appropriates by probing its capabilities and opportunities for self-regulation, including coping with difficult life situations.     

Work models: Beyond instructional objectives

While instructional objectives have provided a cornerstone for the practice and science of instruction, they have also locked us into a lexically based conceptual system. In order to realize the interactive potential of computer-based instructional systems, we need a new way of representing performance. This paper presents the concept of a work model which is a unit of practice which allows replication of both information and interaction. In addition, the work model idea also addresses some of the fundamental problems with objectives such as their inability to capture the richness of terminal behavior or how to relate objectives to content.     

Delay in disclosure of childhood rape: results from a national survey

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to gather representative data regarding the length of time women who were raped before age 18 delayed prior to disclosing such rapes, whom they disclosed to, and variables that predicted disclosure within 1 month. METHOD: Data were gathered from 3,220 Wave II respondents from the National Women's Study (Resnick, Kilpatrick, Dansky, Saunders, & Best, 1993), a nationally representative telephone survey of women's experiences with trauma and mental health. Of these, 288 retrospectively reported at least one rape prior to their 18th birthday. Details of rape experiences were analyzed to identify predictors of disclosure within 1 month. RESULTS: Fully 28% of child rape victims reported that they had never told anyone about their child rape prior to the research interview; 47% did not disclose for over 5 years post-rape. Close friends were the most common confidants. Younger age at the time of rape, family relationship with the perpetrator, and experiencing a series of rapes were associated with disclosure latencies longer than 1 month; shorter delays were associated with stranger rapes. Logistic regression revealed that age at rape and knowing the perpetrator were independently predictive of delayed disclosure. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed disclosure of childhood rape was very common, and long delays were typical. Few variables were identified that successfully predicted disclosure behavior, but older age and rape by a stranger were associated with more rapid disclosure. This suggests that the likelihood of disclosure in a given case is difficult to estimate, and predictions based on single variables are unwarranted.     

Bedbugs

Gene G. Bradbury is a Pastor/Teacher, part time, in Concrete, WA, and spends the rest of his time writing for children and adults.