Feb 12 2009
Justice is swift
An interesting thing happened this afternoon. I opened up my http://learningweb2.wikispaces.com wiki to find the content on the front page had disappeared with a single line on the page saying “THIS WAS DEMOLISHED BY JAMZ1″. Having never had one of my pages vandalised before, I hopped into the page history to see who was at fault and discovered from the profile of the user that it was a 10 year old boy in Scotland. The actual page was very easy to fix given that I just had to roll back to an earlier version of the page. I then pondered if I should send the lad a message but then decided this might seem a victory to the boy as it would prove I had visited his profile and probably his wiki which may have been his goal in the first place.
So instead of rewarding him with attention, I sent this message to the Wikispaces team:
I just wanted to report that a Wikispaces member has purposely deleted the content from one of my wiki pages. I have reverted it back to before it was deleted so no real damage done but still think that this isn’t an appropriate way to behave on the web. When I checked out the history, it was deleted by a user called spyguy4 who it appears is a 10 year old boy in Scotland. I was thinking of sending him a message myself but didn’t want to reward his behaviour with attention – I thought it might be better coming from the Wikispaces team 
The page that was vandalised was http://learningweb2.wikispaces.com
Action following this message was swift – Wikispaces got back to me to say that they have suspended his account. And now I find myself feeling a little guilty! The kid had spent a bit of time setting up a wiki showcasing all of his interests (video games, cars etc) which I guess he can’t access anymore! I thought maybe a stern talking to would have done the trick. Still, I guess this is a very clear lesson for the youngster on what happens if you behave badly in virtual spaces. What would you have done in the same situation? Do you think the punishment matches the crime?
10 responses so far
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Flickr/suzievesper
Facebook/Suzie Vesper
Twitter/suziea
YouTube/suziea
Del.icio.us/vespers1
GMail/Suzie Vesper
Blog/Suzie Vesper
Diigo/suzievesper
I agree with wikispaces re suspending the account. Perhaps this could also be followed up with an explanation by email. Will he learn a lesson or are we creating a future hacker out for revenge?
I can see why you feel guilty. But I suppose it has to be done for the person to learn the proper way of working online. It would be good if there was a way he could earn trust back again in some way or other. We are just softies because we are teachers and our students’ welfare and learning is the most important thing.
Hi Suzie
Well that was a lovely little surprise for you! :+/
We don’t know what else the boy has been up to and may not know the full story for why Wikispaces shut him down. I do hope that the boy was informed clearly of why his account was closed!
Barb left an interesting thought – I believe he needs to be worked with so that we don’t create “a future hacker”.
I agree with the others- he needs to know why his wikispace account has been suspended, not just that he can no longer access his site. If not he, by now, has probably created a new log in already and will continue his nefarious actions under a new guise!
I think the wiki site had a right to do that, I believe its under the agreement you sign as a member of the site.
Still I totally agree with Barb’s point that an explanation should be followed up by email to mitigate the potential for a future hacker.
Also, just to be safe, I hope you have anonymized all names in this post.
I think I would have reported to the administrators of the hack of my wiki site to let them know of a possible security flaw in the system. I would also check with them the actions that they would do to the culprit too. That said, most of the time, we have to leave it in the hands of others to deal justice.
Nah …. harden up. If he had tagged your classroom, or pulled a display from the wall of your room in the middle of the night we would feel like ringing his little 10yr old neck and ‘throw the book’ at him. Why is there less enthusiasm for this response with a virtual space? Why is it of lower value?
What he did was vandalism pure and simple …. this is a moral and ethical issue and he needs to learn his lesson. How is this different from a kid intentionally deleting someone elses work at school – I would deal with that VERY severely!!
My assumption would be Wikispaces would let him know why his account was suspended. Lesson learned if he is sufficiently interested in Web2.0 tools to have his own wiki. It will hurt … and hopefully point made.
Maybe I’m a hard ba***rd but I think you are being a bit lenient and ‘understanding’.
Greg
When I first started using Wikispaces with Year 7’s, two “lovely” young lads decided to go about creating 256 spaces with the most rudest, crudest names that they could think of. I spent a long time deleting them all and then wrote an apology letter to Adam and the team at Wikispaces who then suspended their accounts for me. I also spent time with the parents and the two boys talking over the behaviour and the consequences for their actions.
As a proactive measure our wiki warranty now includes a conduct clause clearly stating that behaviour similar to this or the behaviour that the 10 year old Scottish lad exhibited will result in a suspended wikispace account and will in no way be tolerated.
I think the young scottish lad got exactly the consequence he deserved. He may now have some empathy for how you must have felt when you first discovered all your work “gone”.
I feel happy that you site was easily resurected and that wikispaces responded so quickly. I am lucky to have contact with students with a lot of time out from the pressure. It is a shame that the virtual world does not allow you to try to council him to better behaviour. I probably sound like a bleeding heart liberal. I have spent some time with my own kids tonight sorting out a dispute between my own children. I know remorse and reform are possible. It was possibly not achievable in this case. Please don’t wreck my wikis they too are all open.
Thanks for all the perspectives everyone. I guess when I wrote to Wikispaces, I thought they would contact the boy rather than just suspend his account. I haven’t changed any of the usernames in this post as the account had been suspended so noone can follow the link and see anything about the lad in question. Still, it is a good point so I will take out the username reference.
My belief has always been that actions have consequences – both positive and negative. Life is about choices and learning that what you choose will draw forth response. A young baby works out the action and response thing really quickly. And isn’t this also the nature of true inquiry. Now this student has two more choices to make to enrich his learning. Hopefully he will learn that messing with others can lead to be messed around yourself. If he chooses to become more antisocial, there is nothing that you could have done differently in response to his behaviour that would likely have brought about a better outcome. I hope wikispaces did provide an explanation of why his account had been discontinued, and what choices he might have in being able to redress the issue as this needs to be seen as a consequence rather than a punishment – i.e something he brought on himself rather than something someone else has done to him. In that way he may more ably see that he could make some better choices such as apologise and maybe be deserving of having his account reinstated but closely monitored for a period. When mistakes are viewed as opportunities to make better future choices then learning can occur.
Cheers, Jill