Professional Youth Worker

Discussions of professionalism always happen when youth workers gather. It's an inevitability.

As I was reading my blogs this morning, I came across a blog from Ian, a British youth minister.

In a forum he was reading, someone posted the definition of profession. So good, I'm re-posting here.

Looking at the 'roots' of such things ... from the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary, we find:
Main Entry: pro·fes·sion
Pronunciation: \prə-ˈfe-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English professioun, from Anglo-French profession, from Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin profession-, professio, from Latin, public declaration, from profitēri
Date: 13th century
1: the act of taking the vows of a religious community
2: an act of openly declaring or publicly claiming a belief, faith, or opinion : protestation
3: an avowed religious faith
4 a: a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation b: a principal calling, vocation, or employment c: the whole body of persons engaged in a calling

Thanks to Ian! Go read his blog. He's one of my favorites.

Survey Says . . .

We have completed gathering data for the Online Gaming Survey. We are currently "crunching" the numbers and will begin to post results sometime in December of 2008.

Thanks to all who participated in the survey.

Not all Parental Controls are Equal

Recently my son figured out a way to get around the Norton Parental Controls by using a proxy. Not only did this violate our agreement about computer use, but he used a "free" proxy that allowed him to go to sites that Norton Parental Controls would not allow him to go, but it also uploaded some malware that was trying to mine personal information. Because I have other programs on the computer he uses, the attempted malware was stopped before it could do any harm as well as locked the computer until I could enter my administrative password.

I mentioned this because I want to remind everyone not to depend on just one protection for your computer or your home network. It is also a reminder that we need to keep an eye on our kids when they are on the computer. In the ten minutes that I was not in the room where the computer is located, he was able to attempt the work around which he learned about from another child a few days earlier.

For more information about using proxies, begin by clicking here.

For more information about internet safety produces, begin by clicking here.

Spend some time learning by doing your own research, and remember to examine different review sites.

BTW - His attempt to get around the Parental Controls earned him a grounding until school starts at the end of August.

New Wizard101 MMORPG

Wizard101 has begun its beta testing on their new MMORPG game. The game appears to be designed for kids and the developers are keeping safety in mind with limited chat functions according to your age as well as word and phase filters for older teens and adults. However, a game is only safe when parents monitor their children and their internet usage.

The game even has an information page for parents. You can begin viewing the material by clicking here.

June is Internet Safety Month

This month is Internet Safety Month and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace has a lot of information for you. While some of this information is out of date, it also has some good advice.

For more information go to the NCJRS site.

Boy Scouts have new Internet Safety Requirements

The new 2008 revisions to the Tenderfoot through First Class requirements include new safety awareness requirements. The First Class require includes being aware of internet safety and knowing what forms cyberbullying can take.

See the new requirements here.

Virginia First State to Require Internet Safety lessons

Virginia has become the first state to require Internet Safety to be taught in public schools. According to the Attorney General, Bob McDonnell, this requirement has come about due to concerns about sexual offender cases in Virginia as well as an increase in internet-base crime. It was also noted that more than half of the world's internet traffic flows through Virginia since companies such as AOL and MCI have large operations based in that state.

For more information see Virginia's Handbook.