New Jersey Principal Calls for Middle School Social Networking Ban

Someone's awake!

And he's the principal of Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Tony Orsini has requested parents to keep computers out of their kids' bedrooms. That's where predators can forge relationships with unsuspecting, naive little kids.

He's discouraging social networking, too.

Why? Predators troll social network sites for kids who don't worry about tight privacy settings. Kids are also vulnerable to cyber-bullying from not only peers, but total strangers who blackmail them for porn. Mr. Orsini tells only the half of it:

If one or two kids, and they don't have to even be from our town, say something bad about what you look like, or make fun of the way that you dress, or your sexuality, that stuff can't come back, and for an 11-year old, or a 12-year old, that's devastating. And they're just too young..

Mr. Orsisi wants Facebook and other social networking sites like Formspring, banned from his school. He thinks the risk is far too great.

The kids have mixed feelings. Many think the focus should be on education, not draconian measures like these.

But that only means they haven't had a decent workshop on the subject.

Linda Freedman, LCSW, LMFT, PhD