The projects undertaken within this supportive relationship will help young people to reflect on and describe their experiences, and to construct new ways of understanding themselves and their circumstances – including how digital technology has been used and can be used. One of the major “problems” of digital technology is that it is constantly changing, offering new and exciting resources, new ways to share information and communicate. Through digital life story work activities, you will build a relationship in which discussions of digital safety are regularly revisited. This ongoing conversation means that currently available and new resources can be accommodated into the young person’s life with greater openness.
Wider conversations about appropriate personal and digital boundaries are rooted in aspects of all the projects. In commenting upon the use of technology in child welfare, Tregeagle and Darcy (2008) recognise that this is a challenging area and that the increasing merging of technologies, such as the way in which internet activities can be performed on mobile phones, potentially increases the risks that young people are exposed to. However, they also recognise that socialising and forming relationships is a central part of teenage life and that most young people are heavy users of technology. Not engaging with young people about this subject is therefore not an option. I guess kids in care do sometimes have that tendency to be overly open straight away with things and there’s loads of free internet hotspots now… you can go to McDonalds and get on the internet, that’s not that far away and libraries have free access too… (Mark, residential worker)
The online world carries risks, and many young people with whom you work will be particularly vulnerable. Digital life story work projects will not magically cure this. Risky behaviours online, as with those displayed offline, are common manifestations of emotional problems which young people may suffer from, due to how their physical and psychological wellbeing has been affected by pre-care and, in some cases, care experiences. But digital life story work projects and the relationships developed through these do provide a chance to help young people explore and use technology more responsibly and with greater awareness of risk.
If we are to help young people to function safely in this digital world, we have to admit that they will occasionally encounter problems. Expecting them to be proficient, or to become proficient instantaneously without support, coaching and encouragement in an area in which their peers who have not experienced significant disadvantages continue to struggle is an unrealistic and unfair expectation. I think that the safeguards are only there once they’ve done something that makes a violation but perhaps we can assist them in not making a violation in the first place…You know it’s like…when your kid’s learning to ride a bike: do you not bother with the stabilisers on them and let them fall off? Or do you put the stabilisers on first and take them off as they get better? (Peter, senior residential worker)
Metallurgy the Heralder of a New Age in the History of Technology
