The negative sides of technology - Sexting

Technology moves at the speed of lighting nowadays, with something new always being developed. As that happens it can be good and bad for society. With technology developing so fast, it seems that there is a gap between how fast it is developing and the education needed for society to properly use it. One of the negatives sides of technology is that every child has a cell phone, and cell phones are being given to them earlier and earlier. Personally, my niece is 5 yrs old and is constantly using her mother's cell phone to go online.

One of the drawback's of technology and cell phones is sexting. I think the bigger question is if movies, tv, and games are rated and you can have settings for your tv on what kids can see, why don't cell phones have the same options ?  Schools are trying to adapt to the fast moving pace of today by having technology education start earlier than it used to before, somewhere in middle school. I believe that either in the technology classes or in the sexual education classes offered in high school  sexting and its consequences should be touched upon. But, the younger the kids the less likely it is that they will understand how dangerous sexting can be and the consequences it could lead too. This kind of education should mostly be left up the parents because this is a very personal issue that not all parents would handle the same, and they are the ones who must determine when they feel it is safe and appropriate to educate their child on any sexual issues, especially because parents can bring a suit against the school if they are not happy with what their kids are being exposed to.

The whole responsibility of this kind of education cannot be left up to the schools, but schools should have a responsibility to keep the parents informed when a serious issue like sexting arises. Both mothers of the girls who committed suicide stated that the schools were aware that this was going on, and one of the girls was also cutting herself and they did not notify the parents.

Copyright

Copyright is a body of original work that can be seen or heard, it cannot be an idea. Copyright laws protect the owners of these types of works, by giving them the permission to grant or deny other people from using their work for an amount of time. The exception to this rule is "fair use", which grants permission for copyrighted work to be used without having to ask for permission if it is used for scholarship, research, or teaching. Fair use has three limitations that must be followed ir order to be covered under it,it is dependent on the amount of the work borrowed compared to what the total work is, what kind of work is being borrowed, and it cannot affect the monetary value of the original work in the marketplace. An educator can copy and distribute to the students copies of a copyrighted work as long as it is a part of the work, and not the whole thing such as a whole book. An educator cannot distribute a whole work to avoid purchasing it, because they would be affecting the market place value of that work infringing on fair use. But, photo copying a few pages or paragraphs of the book is acceptable for educational purposes. Fair use is a great law, because it is meant to inspire members of society to come up with new idea and original work, in order to inspire new ideas students first must learn what came before so that they can build upon was has already been done, and be creative.

Sources used: Copyright and Fair Use. Faden, Eric. "Fair(Y) Use Tale: a Short Film." Center for Internet and Society. Stanford Law School Center or Internet and Society. 3 Nov. 2007.