The surgeon general says that abstinence education is not enough. Successful sex education must include both abstinence education as well as safe-sex practices. Educating students about using social-networking sites, and more broadly, the Internet requires just the same. While we acknowledge that the safest behavior is to abstain from social-networking communities, we also want those who enter them to do so with the knowledge to do so safely. This is my recreation of the Surgeon General’s report, but made for the online education we are working towards:
Provide access to education about online safety and appropriate use of the Internet that is thorough, wide-ranging, begins early, and continues throughout the lifespan. Such education should: recognize the special place that the online world has in the lives of young people stress the value and benefits of being online anonymously until involved in a community where one feels confident that information is protected and secure * assure awareness of optimal protection from online dangers for those who participate in online communities, while stressing that there are no infallible methods of protection except “abstinence,” and that restricted communities can still leave one’s information exposed
