In a prior post, there was an article about "Internet Safety in the Emerging Collaboration Economy". The intent was to make us think more seriously about the social environment of our “digital natives” -- it is here to stay, and we need to provide “proper direction” for its use. Just as we discuss “stranger danger” topics with our children, we should also teach them skills to help them identify their “internal alarm”, warning them to retreat from threats to their safety on the Internet. 
 
A group of state's attorneys general have formed a Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking. The intent is for the group to find ways for Social Networking sites to become more responsible in protecting children from Internet dangers. According to Enterprise Security Today (enterprise-security-today.com), in mid January, social network giant MySpace had reached an agreement with the Group on creating a new set of guidelines for protecting the "young members in its community". They have identified four categories of principles to guide the protection of children on social networking sites: 
1) site design and functionality;  
2) education and tools for parents, educators and children;  
3) law enforcement cooperation;  
4) an online safety task force. 
Not the final answer but a good beginning we all could learn from. The group is intent on moving these principals throughout other social networking providers such as Facebook.  
 
To reiterate, as uncomfortable as we digital immigrants are, we need to provide proper direction for our children. Our classroom teachers are weaving these skills into their classroom activities, utilizing collaboration along with the delivery of the curriculum content. Lincoln Middle School classrooms are blogging about novels and science experiments. Fifth grade classrooms are creating wikis from their research in topics of the Human Body, Geography, and Space. Of course, the students enjoy these types of activities, but we are learning along with them -- which is most interesting and fun for us, as we emigrate from our world to theirs.