Cyber Safety

This week I’m focusing on cyber safety or being safe online. This is good information for all people, young or old. Sometimes we think that our children already know how to be safe since they are part of the technology generation. But children are often too trusting and tend to believe everything they see on the internet.

We need to educate our students (and probably their parents, too) in online safety. A few years ago someone contacted me asking for information about keeping children safe online. She was writing an article for Women of Spirit magazine. I sent her these basic guidelines.

1. Computers should NEVER be in a child's room or any room that is not supervised at all times. Put the computer in the kitchen or family room where lots of traffic will be. Do not leave children at a computer unattended. Children can access objectionable sites in seconds. Monitor what sites children are accessing and check the history.

2. Invest in good filtering software and set parent controls with a password. If parents don't know how to do this, ask or pay someone who does know how to teach you. Change the password regularly. You can even set up accounts on the computer so children cannot get on the computer unless you type in the password.

3. Set your internet to open to a child-friendly site such as kids.yahoo.com. (This used to be called Yahooligans) You can also customize Yahoo or another browser to look the way you want and avoid certain sites.

4. Teach your child to not give out any personal information. Teach them what "personal information" is. Continue to reinforce this. Many parents think that if they told their child once, that is enough. Quiz them in the car, anywhere. "If someone asks you for your
address, is that personal information?"

5. Instead of using real names, use a computer code name. Make it simple and not suggestive. Don't use something like "prettygirl", "cuteasabutton", or names like that.

If you type in ‘online safety’ or other search terms like that you will come across many sites that will give you some good information. Here are three that you might check out.

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/kidtool.htm
http://www.safekids.com/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2272549,00.asp
Cyber bullying is yet another problem that could be a problem at your school. Most states have laws against bullying and more states are including cyber bullying in their law. Check out the laws in your state to see what the consequences of this can be.
Most students just aren’t aware of how dangerous it can be online. We don’t need to frighten them, but to teach them how to search the internet and what kind of information not to post. Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites have our kids on them even though they may be underage. Parents are allowing their children to have their own Facebook page and may not be monitoring them.
Now you’re wondering if I know of any books to use to teach this information. The answer is ‘Yes’. In fact, I have a very good set of books that I used with grades 3 – 6 last year. It is a set of five books and was easy to use and talk with kids about. The books generated some good discussion and I was surprised how much the older children didn’t know. I thought that the kids would be savvier than they were, so I was glad I was able to do some teaching about these subjects.
The set is written by David J. Jakubiak and published by PowerKids Press, 2010. The books cost around $22.00 each with library binding, but I checked Amazon.com and saw them in paperback for less than $10.00 each.
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Social Networking Online
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Doing Internet Research
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Avoiding Online Predators
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Internet Privacy
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Online Bullying

Teaching children is one thing; we have them captive. But what about when they go home? Will they take these guidelines home and use them? It might be a good idea to have your Home and School leaders arrange an education program to help parents learn about these dangers and how to keep their children safe at the home computer. If this isn’t an option, consider a newsletter or a mailing with information for parents about this topic.

I hope you have a good week and keep yourself safe in all areas.
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com