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A Response to 'Separating Wheat from Chaff"
In "Separating Wheat from Chaff Why Dirty Pictures are not the Real Dilemma in Using the Internet to Teach Social Studies" (Socal Education, March 1998), Fred Risinger has delved into the disputed issue of managing students' exposure to debris on the Internet.1 The mere possibility of children exploring freely in a medium replete with explicit sexual images has incited controversy, as opponents' calls for censorship become more fervent and emotionally charged. Risinger's challenge to the burn and purge sentiment that promotes a cleansing of pornographic material on the World Wide Web is a valiant attempt to call attention to the problem while modeling a critical analysis of the issues. However, by identifying student access to "dirty pictures" as not the real dilemma facing educators and policymakers, he may have inadvertently created a risk that the issue of pornography and sexually oriented material focused on children will be discounted as a problem by the very people who serve as a critical line of defense in the protection of children from maltreatment.
Risinger identifies the development of student skills in evaluating and validating information as the real problem schools must address. The Internet has become part of our social system, but it may create problems for the social studies teacher, if that teacher is threatened by loss of control over the information available to students. Since it is never possible to be 100% successful in creating a safe environment, Risinger is correct in promoting the development of students' critical thinking and analysis skills so that young people may become more able to recognize deceptive and potentially threatening information. After all, there is value in using the information available on the Internet to teach students to "look for, examine, and either support or debunk information"
However, the shift of attention away from sexually explicit material on the Internet and on to the shoulders of students, by making it their responsibility to evolve their information skills, implies that students have the capacity to manage the process of data analysis and the means to be critical consumers. There remains a prevalent myth that children can be given responsibility to keep themselves safe from offending adults; but the ultimate responsibility for protecting...