Had a phone call with Jon Udell today (more on smart things he got me to think about later), but just wanted to record one important point for thought:
Where on the web are your web-illiterate instincts wrong?
For example, your instincts of “don’t let kids talk to strangers without you” is probably (most parents would say) right both on and off the web. But some of your instincts around digital copying are wrong.
If we could identify which instincts are wrong and where, that may be the exact set of skills that are necessary beyond just the “how do I make” skills. (And, in a lot of ways, the skills that will exist beyond the lifetime any given technology.)
I’m not entirely convinced that not letting your kids talk to strangers on the web is right. I think people on the internet are pretty much like people not on the internet; mostly nice.
I’m wholly convinced that not letting your kids talk to strangers without you in real life is a bad idea for a number of reasons. First, strangers are interesting, and it seems to me that kids need exposure to many different viewpoints so that they can figure out what they should believe. Second, most of the things people worry about strangers doing are far more likely to be done by someone the child knows (and both of them are dwarfed by more prosaic things like car crashes). Third, if your child is lost, having them run away or hide from strangers will only make things worse.
(And yes, I’m a parent, so this isn’t just theoretical rambling.
Having said all that, I totally agree with your main point, and look forward to seeing a list of commonly-held mis-instincts sometime.