A high school teacher in Churchville, Virginia recently noted in the paper that students at her school attended a program on Internet and online safety. Many of the kids were surprised to learn that cell phone calls don't just go from one phone to another. All text messages and calls are transmitted through cell phone towers, which route the calls or texts to the company's servers. All sent messages and photos are stored on the provider's server. This means pictures deleted from a phone never really are deleted, and text messages and photos never go away. They still exist in the virtual world.
Should those pictures become the center of a court case, the information is subject to "discovery." With the right equipment, law enforcement can retrieve deleted photos from ANYONE'S cell phone.
When photos of underage students are passed around people need to clearly understand that they might be prosecuted for producing, distributing and possessing child pornography. SEXTING is a criminal offense in almost every state in the US. Whoever receives and distributes those photos could be convicted of a felony, serve prison time AND live the rest of their lives as a registered sex offender.
You know there are some pretty outrageous things that can be done with our electronic toys. From cell phones to the Internet, a wealth of information is available. Some of what we see edifies but a vast amount, whether on your phone, email, facebook etc. is just plain shocking.
Texting on a cell phone is convenient but to avoid running afoul of the law The Youngest's phone is simply set up to not accept any texts or pictures. To protect him from any dorky friends who may think that pictures taken in the girl's locker room would be a hoot, the texting feature on his phone is disallowed.
I've chastised my children, especially for things they've posted on facebook. Social networking is right. there. for. everyone. to. see. And before you say, "don't care," stop and think about what an employer might say about your facebook site. Are you mildly ribbing your friends & relatives or are they hurt & offended? Are you striving to be viewed as humorous or are you coming across as a jerk? Me thinks facebook would best be handled with care. A great way to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances. A dangerous place to let it all hang out.
Then there are the blogs. Boy, they come in every flavor imaginable. And for whatever reason you are blogging I'm REALLY sure that you should be able to figure that you're willing to own every word you've written. If your best friend gets a hold of it, are you good? Your boss? The in-laws? The neighbors who irritate the tar out of you? Oh, and how about the Bishop?
Woof!
There's an old saying that reminds us to think before we talk/write. We're cautioned to ask ourselves... 1) Is it true? 2) Is it kind? 3) Is it necessary?
I'm totally not saying everything in this blog falls under that criteria!
'Cause yes, I'm going to claim it's all true.
Kind...oh, not always.
Necessary...bwahaha. Guess we'll have to figure out if I would have gotten over myself in time or if I was really thinking I was gonna have to walk up to someone and SMACK 'em and venting here prevented that!
Of course, there are the times that I think my pithy (no pun intended) remarks on human nature are funny. Sorry if it offends but that is just the way I roll...
Ultimately if the Bishop copied this off and was waving a sheaf of papers in front of my nose I'd... well, there might be some interesting conversations with a few people but, what the hey, it would certainly be a place to start that conversation, eh?
Still...
Over all I see too many people being way too careless, too casual. We're surrounded by music, TV programs, movies, text messages, Internet postings, pop-ups & emails that are vulgar, rude and destructive.
And I'm pretty sure that's not who we want to be.
We used to warn our children about the dangers of the world before we buttoned their coats and tied their shoes and sent them out the door.
Now they don't even have to get out of their jammies to get into trouble...
Be careful out there, will ya?
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