Hasn’t the time come to teach our kids internet etiquette?
The tragic case of 18-year-old Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi is just the latest example of a kid feeling so violated by the internet that he felt that he no other choice but to commit suicide.
This is just one more case — and there are plenty all over the country — where a student felt that his privacy had been so invaded and then displayed on the web that he couldn’t bear to go on with his life.
As we discussed on the Sports Edge this AM, the time has come for schools everywhere to step up their curriculum to teach either kids in middle school or in high school that the internet can be a devastating weapon. Internet bullying, hazing, and the invasion of privacy has to be stopped. And the first step to doing that is by teaching kids just how damaging their comments online may be to a classmate, colleague, or opposing teammate.
Anonymous blog posting, incorrect wikipedia edits, posting damaging video on youtube, even photoshopping pictures meant to embarass other individuals can no longer be tolerated. Parents have to be a main part of the solution here as well – they have to step in and try and teach their kids right from wrong when it comes to internet etiquette – or “netiquette.”
Of all the various topics in the world of sports parenting, this may be the most far-reaching. Kids know that when something is posted online, it is there for the entire world to view….and that it’s there forever. They have no control over it. And for too many kids, like Tyler Clementi, they see no way out.
Doug Abrams
Rick Wolff
Steve Kallas
Ask Coach Wolff 
dear mr. wolf and all your fans..the major problems the i see and experienced when raising my children has always been the lack of respect that is shown both on the field of play and from other families towards others..difficult to control others but to teach ones own children and teams has been my priorities..as the kids become young adults they are influenced by their pears which as parents we still have to discuss with our own..jokes turn into tragedy and how horrible the results..the distuction of three beautiful lives and their families and friends forever..praying that they heal but sad to say it may never happen …thank hg
We are narcissists at heart and the internet feeds the monkey of self-importance. The viral growth of it dooms us all. The real question is why no sensible population control exists. Technology evolves faster than our societal skills can handle it. Best we cut the cable, pull the plug and turn to our bibles and stop flinging our seed to the four points of the compass just we can carry on our names and act as though we are the most important thing in the world at any given moment.