Here is a link to my CNET review of PBS Frontline special Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier which airs on PBS stations Tuesday at 9:00 PM and now on the web.

But don’t just take my word that this is an important and provocative program.  Two other respected Internet safety experts and youth advocates have weighed in with their thoughtful analysis of the show.

Read Anne Collier and Stephen Balkam’s reviews not just to help you decide whether to watch the film but for their own perspectives on the important issues that the film brings to light. Anne Collier’s NetFamilyNews post is titled “PBS Frontline’s ‘Digital Nation’: Presenting our generation with a crucial choice. FOSI CEO Stephen Balkam’ wrote Are We (Virtually) There yet? for the Huffington Post.

Anne picked up on one of the things the show taught us about how children learn by quoting the show’s interview with James Paul Gee who, in Anne’s words, “told of how, in virtual worlds and multiplayer games, young people function in teams in which “everybody is an expert in something but they know how to integrate their expertise with everybody else’s; they know how to understand the other person’s expertise so they can pull off an action together in a complicated world’”?

Balkam notes that “the real battle grounds fought over in this film include the future of education and how we raise our kids. The recent Kaiser Family Foundation research found that kids were consuming 7.5 hours of media per day. Add in multi-tasking — texting while watching TV while listening to music, for instance, and the figure reaches an amazing 11 hours.”  My own analysis of the Kaiser study is here.

On a related topic, also see Are you an Internet Optimist or Pessimist? The Great Debate over Technology’s impact on Society by Adam Thierer. Thierer does an excellent job summarizing how different people view the social and technology changes over past three decades concluding “On balance, I believe the optimists generally have the better of the argument today. But pessimists make many fair points that deserve to be taken seriously; they just need a more reasonable articulation of (some of) those concerns.”

You now can watch the full program online.

Click to watch Digital Nation

My message to parents and teachers is simple.  Embrace the technology that kids use, recognize that whatever you may lack in technology knowledge you make up in wisdom and remember that you, too, were once a kid.  Your first reaction to kid activity that may be a bit disturbing shouldn’t be to freak out and shut down access but to take a deep breath, talk with (and listen to) the kids and do everything you can to encourage dialog. 

And try to become familiar with the technology your kids use. That doesn’t mean you necessarily have to be their friend on Facebook or MySpace, but before you start trying to control how they use social networking technology, make sure you understand it.

Teachers should attempt to use social networking as part of the educational process. Whether they know it or not, kids are enaged in informal learning through their use of social networking so why not use the same technology for formal learning? And while you’re at it, incorporate digital citizenship and media literacy into your teaching.  

As my ConnectSafely co-director Anne Collier pointed out in “Social media literacy: The new Internet safety,” media literacy and critical thinking “is protective against manipulation and harm.” Encouraging kids to practice good digital citizenship helps protect all young people, because “behaving aggressively online more than doubles the risk of being victimized.”

As per kids, Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer at News Corp and MySpace offers some Online Safety and Back to School advice especially suited to youth who use social networking services like MySpace and Facebook (MySpace is one of several companies that provide financial support for ConnectSafely).  He starts off with the usual internet safety advice: “don’t post anything you wouldn’t want the world to know” and “don’t get together with someone you ‘meet’ online unless you’re certain of their identity.”  Then, perhaps a bit uncharacteristic of his background as a former federal prosecutor, Nigam also provides advice about the compassionate and kind use of social networking

• Post with respect: photos are a great way to share wonderful experiences.  If you’re posting a photo of you and your friends, put yourself in your friends’ shoes and ask would your friends want that photo to be public to everyone.  If yes, then you’re uploading photos with respect.
• Comment with kindness: compliments are like smiles, they’re contagious.  When you comment on a profile, share a kind word, others will too.
• Update with empathy: sharing updates lets us tell people what we think.  When you give an opinion on your status updates, show empathy towards your friends and help them see the world with understanding eyes.

ConnectSafely.org, the non-profit website I co-direct, has lots of other advice on the safe and productive use of social media and technology.

WASHINGTON — Last year, Congress passed the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act,which called for yet another committee to study Internet safety. By statute, the Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG) is made up of representatives of the business community, public interest groups and federal agencies. I’m on the committee as co-director of the nonprofit ConnectSafely.org.  ConnectSafely co-director and NetFamilyNews editor Anne Collier serves as co-chairman along with MySpace cheif security officer, Hemanshu Nigam.

The group, which reports to the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is totally unfunded. The government wasn’t even able to buy us lunch, let alone plane tickets to Washington. But I’m not complaining. It’s an honor to have even a small role in helping to shape national Internet safety policy.

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about the working group, wondering why we needed yet another committee to look at this topic. In 2000, the “COPA Commission,” created by the Children’s Online Protection Act of 1998, issued a very comprehensive report, and last year I was privileged to serve on the Internet Safety Technical Task Force — created by attorneys general of nearly every state.

The task force issued a report debunking myths about Internet safety, concluding that kids are more at risk from other kids than from so-called Internet predators. That finding was rejected by several of the state attorneys general who received it. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said the report’s findings were “as disturbing as they are wrong,” adding that “the conclusions in this report create a troubling false sense of security on the issue of child Internet safety.”

But I think the report was both accurate and insightful. It recognized that Internet safety is too complicated to be reduced to sound bites and sensationalist TV shows, and that most of the kids who get in trouble online also get in trouble offline. The Internet may amplify dangers, but it doesn’t create them.

I’m not aware of any federal Internet safety commissions that met during the Bush administration. From what I can tell, that administration paid very little attention to Internet safety other than to add to the exaggerations and fear-mongering about so-called Internet predators.

So is there any point in taking yet another look at Internet safety? Yes, if only because things have changed dramatically over the past few months. To begin with, we have a new administration led by a president who actually understands the Internet as well as the constitutional issues that arise whenever government tries to control online speech, access or even safety.

When the new working group convened Thursday, our first speaker was Susan Crawford, who works at the White House as special assistant to the president for science, technology and innovation policy. A law professor and founder of OneWebDay, Crawford brings a refreshing understanding of the government’s need to balance safety and security with civil liberties, privacy and even the First Amendment rights of minors.

Her opening remarks helped set the tone for the group by admonishing us to “avoid overheated rhetoric about risks to kids online,” pointing out that “risks kids face online may not be significantly different than the risks they face offline.”

She also reminded us that “the risks are more subtle than the press would have us believe,” and that we need to avoid trying to find “silver bullets” and recommending policy based on “anecdotes.” Finally she pointed out that we need to be careful to avoid “tech mandates.” While the working group will research the efficacy of technology tools to help protect kids, Crawford repeated something that I have been saying for 12 years: “The best software (to protect kids) is between the ears,” not on a device.

The working group will be divided into four subcommittees: child pornography reporting, data retention, protection technology and education. I will chair the education subcommittee and look forward to hearing from companies, educators, nonprofits and anyone else who has ideas about how to educate America’s youth to keep on using the Internet productively and safely. If you have ideas, please feel free to share them.