It's the flip side of gaming for teaching and learning: gaming could pull students away from their studies, says an FCC commissioner.
You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.
Citation needed, please. Note, too, the continued acceptance of the "gaming addiction" concept without demur.
Some of the rest of the speech is fascinating, with a series of fearsome internet statements. For example, this strange Pollyanna idea:
Like many parents, I never really thought past the benefits the Internet offers... However, we must also realize that this technological explosion of access also presents challenges and very real dangers.
Somehow this FCC commissioner - a national leader - missed a couple of decades' worth of cyberfear. Maybe not the best datapoint for her tenure.
Moving on, a nice dose of mobile fear:
Even more concerning, the threat is no longer contained to the family computer. It is in the palm of your child’s hand. Given the fact that approximately 60% of American teens have a cell phone, and that cell phones are being marketed to children as young as 6...
"In the palm of your child's hand" - as my son says, "shiver!"
More child internet fear as the speech goes global, with a touch on censorship:
I was honored to have been invited by Secretary General Hamadoun Touré to participate in the global launch of the Child Online Protection Initiative at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). (www.itu.int/cop) Ministers and delegates from every nation are considering best practices for protecting children from predators, cyberbullying, pornography, child trafficking, and many other threats.
Note "pornography" there. It's the classic rhetorical move of focusing on children, when the legal category is certainly minors, meaning criminalizing inter-teen communication.
(via BoingBoing)
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