Counsellor aims to outline ways of avoiding pitfalls
Mark Fontaine knew only too well the dark side of Facebook -- guidance counsellors watch the weekend cyberproblems walk into their schools every Monday.
But Fontaine took the extra step and asked his students how they conduct themselves on Facebook.
Sure, like every guidance counsellor, he'd heard stories of kids being bullied online or victimized by people pretending to be someone else.
Fontaine found that more than one-quarter of his kids have been bullies on Facebook, more than one in five has friends on Facebook she or he wouldn't talk to face to face, and almost one in five has either pretended to be someone else on Facebook or has discovered someone else using his or her identity.
Those numbers would pretty much hold up at every junior high or high school in the city, said Fontaine, who counsels the junior high kids at St. John's High School.
"It's amazing how candid they were," said Fontaine, who surveyed 177 grades 7 and 8 students, assuring them that they did not have to put their names on their responses.
"What surprised me was the number of students that have Internet at home," Fontaine said -- 86 per cent in a neighbourhood in which some families struggle financially.
Even more surprising, 93 per cent have Facebook accounts, suggesting they sign on at the public library, at someone else's house or in businesses offering free Internet access.
Fontaine plans to visit each class in St. John's High to discuss what he's learned, and will also hold a parent meeting in March.
"I'll get into the nuts and bolts of what Facebook is all about," he said. Fontaine will talk to the kids about privacy, how to block access to all but their approved contacts and the implications both short- and long-term about what they post.
"This is a very powerful medium. It encompasses the entire globe, and it's spontaneous."
Even though the division blocks access to Facebook on school computers, students can access Facebook on their cellphones and other hand-held devices, he pointed out. "A threatening message could get passed throughout the whole school without the staff's knowledge.
"We're going to have a second survey after the classroom presentations," he said. "I'd like to know if their parents are aware of their Facebook use."
WSD pupil services consultant Olga Wyshnowsky said that the survey data resemble what researchers found in a 2005 report, Young Canadians in a Wired World, done when MySpace was the social networking rage.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
86
per cent of the students have Internet access at home
93
per cent have Facebook accounts
39
per cent of the students are on Facebook daily
22
per cent of students have Facebook friends they wouldn't feel comfortable talking to in person
34
per cent of students have had mean or hurtful things said about them on Facebook
27
per cent of the students admit to making mean or hurtful posts
24
per cent claim to have been bullied through Facebook
49
per cent have witnessed mean or bullying posts
33
per cent have had to delete a friend because of bullying
19
per cent have pretended to be someone else on Facebook or had someone else pretend to be them
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