Growing Up Online April 15

Just how radically is the internet transforming childhood? Are our children growing up online? Explore the impact of the internet on your family at an event sponsored by the Scarsdale PT Council on Thursday morning April 15 at 9:15 am in the Little Theatre at Scarsdale High School. Two speakers have been invited to address the community and share their views on maximizing the benefits and mitigating the risks of your children’s use of the internet.

Rachel Dretzin, the award-winning PBS producer of Growing Up Online and Digital Nation will discuss what she learned when exploring the children and the internet for her two documentaries. In Growing Up Online, she interviewed and filmed experts and children to find out what kids do online, who they communicate with, what they discuss and the implications of the virtual world on the real world.

When asked what she learned from the process of creating Growing Up Online, she replied:

To my great surprise, I've found myself being more liberal about the time my own children spend on the Internet than I was before I started reporting this program. They're living in a wired world. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle, and their lives will only benefit from learning how to use this extraordinary technology wisely and well. But I do think that when my children reach adolescence (my oldest is almost 10) I'll be much more vigilant as a result of what I've learned working on this program.

There is an age -- and I'm sure it's different for every kid -- when children are simply not emotionally mature enough to handle the social Internet without adult guidance. While teenagers need privacy, I want to be sure my own kids are ready for privacy online before handing it to them. The risks of them losing their way are just too great.

Dretzin is an award-winning filmmaker who has been producing documentaries for Frontline since the mid-1990s, with a focus on films that critically explore contemporary American life and culture. Her latest project, Digital Nation which was broadcast on Frontline in February, is a year-long, multiplatform initiative investigating how new technologies impact the way we live. Digital Nation, which is a follow-up to Dretzin's Emmy-nominated film Growing Up Online, makes use of user-generated content and an ongoing, transparent reporting process in a unique collaboration with the online audience.

Dretzin and her husband, filmmaker Barak Goodman, are joint partners in Ark Media, a documentary production company based in Brooklyn, New York. Dretzin has a degree in history from Yale University and lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with Goodman and their three children, ages 12, 9 and 7.

Also on hand, will be Jerry Crisci, who heads up Information Technology for the Scarsdale School district. Jerry Crisci will discuss concrete ways to guide your children’s use of social networking and the internet to minimize distractions and dangers. Crisci is intimately aware of the educational needs and values of the Scarsdale community and is well positioned to offer parents practical advice.

Join the PT Council for what promises to be an enlightening event:

Date: April 15, 2010
Time: 9:15 – 11:00 am
Where: Scarsdale High School Little Theatre