Online Safety
It's 10 PM. Do You Know What Your Child's Doing Online?
Tweens and teens today are, on average, interacting with digital media for 7 to 11 hours a day (according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study), and more and more through mobile technology. While so many of these digital experiences enhance their lives, it is hard to ignore the social and safety issues this access presents.
The cyber world and all that it offers is changing at a rapid pace. While today we are discussing social media sites and apps like Facebook, Intagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Omegle, Ask.fm, and Snapchat, tomorrow all the names will change – but the point does not. We want our students to feel connected in our world, but we want them to be savvy and safe.
At PVC, students participate in a Cyber Safety curriculum during their Media and Communications classes. The curriculum teaches students what’s legal and what’s illegal when it comes to using the Web; how to protect their privacy and reputations; how to protect themselves from online thieves and predators; and how to communicate safely with friends, knowing where to draw the line.
The course was developed to particularly address issues facing tweens and teens and their digital lives, and exposes students in 8th grade to a variety of issues. Beginning with an understanding of how the teenage brain operates, students learn how, developmentally, they are ill-equipped to make sound and reasoned decisions about sometimes highly emotional online experiences and learn how to slow down and develop a greater awareness of how to analyze situations in order to make better judgments. Through empathy building exercises, students re-enact real cyber-crime cases involving teenagers, taking on different perspectives that provide them with a greater understanding of motives and consequences.
After a thorough investigation of issues like cyberbullying, sexting, online grooming, catfishing, phishing, behavioral targeted advertising, social media’s terms of service contracts, plagiarism, copyright and fair use laws and piracy, 8th graders take charge of their new knowledge to create engaging lessons for their 6th grade schoolmates. Using this peer-to-peer teaching model, the older students become responsible role models for the younger ones, who are much more apt to absorb these important lessons from teens than from adults.
Below, we are providing a list of articles and websites that can serve as a starting point to help you become familiar with the sites and apps that many of your children are using, and can enable you to have informed discussions with your children about how to stay safe. We cannot stress enough the necessity to help children set their privacy settings to the strictest possible on their various social media accounts. We hope that you will support the curriculum we are delivering here at school by having these important conversations with your children.
Sincerely,
Johanna Mustacchi, Media and Communications Teacher
Carrie Beja, School Counselor
Jeanine Isabella, School Counselor
Facebook:
5 Facebook privacy settings you need to check now, Kim Komando, Special for USA TODAY January 18, 2013
A Guide to Facebook's Privacy Options
Instagram:
INSTAGRAM AND KIDS: A PARENT’S GUIDE TO PRIVACY AND SAFETY
http://sociallyactive.com/instagram-and-kids-a-parents-guide/
Instagram And Snapchat Becoming More Popular Among Kids, Facebook Considered Less 'Cool'
Huffington Post By ANNE FLAHERTY 03/18/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/18/instagram-and-snapchat-kids_n_2899732.html
Snapchat:
Want that naked sext you sent to just go away? There's an app for that, COURTNEY SHEA, Special to The Globe and Mail, Thursday, Apr. 18 2013
A Growing App Lets You See It, Then You Don’t, New York Times By JENNA WORTHAM, Published: February 8, 2013
“Although Snapchat says that it cannot see or store copies of content, the service still allows nimble-fingered users to capture screenshots of photos. Mr. Murphy calls that mechanism a “feature, not a vulnerability” of the service. Each time a screenshot of a Snapchat is taken, the sender is alerted that the image has been captured. There have also been reports of loopholes and hacks that let people save videos and screenshots. “Nothing ever goes away on the Internet,” Mr. Spiegel acknowledged.”
Twitter:
Twitter 101 – Web Wise Kids
http://www.webwisekids.org/pdf/WWK_Twitter_Guide_Horizontal-FINAL.pdf
Twitter Safety tips for parents
http://support.twitter.com/articles/470968-safety-tips-for-parents
Who's Following Your Child on Twitter? Twitter Privacy and Safety Tips for Parents, By Andy O'Donnell, About.com Guide
http://netsecurity.about.com/od/newsandeditorial1/a/Whos-Following-Your-Child-On-Twitter.htm
Ask.fm:
Explained: What is Ask.fm? WebWise (an Irish website, but still very applicable information)
http://www.webwise.ie/AskFMExplained.shtm
Social cruelty on Ask.fm & the whack-a-mole tendency, NetFamilyNews.org
http://www.netfamilynews.org/social-cruelty-on-ask-fm-the-whack-a-mole-tendency
Tumblr:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/tumblr
http://info.uknowkids.com/blog/bid/189882/Kids-Safety-6-Things-Parents-Should-Know-About-Tumblr
Omegle:
What is Omegle? Is Omegle okay for kids? BY JEAN – FEBRUARY 20, 2013 From Be Web Smart – For the Analog Parent in a Digital World
http://www.bewebsmart.com/internet-safety/what-is-omegle-is-it-okay-for-kids/
General Information for Parents:
www.BeWebSmart.com Be Web Smart is a web site offering articles, tips, guidance and reviews for parents who want to keep their families safe and productive online.
http://www.cyber-safety.com/index.html
Welcome to Cyber-Safety.com, the website dedicated to keeping kids safe in a wired world.
http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents
Kids Health.org
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/net_safety.html
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/internet-safety
FBI guide to internet safety
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/parent-guide
http://www.internetsafety.com/internet-safety-tips-for-parents.php
WiredSafety.org – Parry Aftab
Facebook Still Reigns Supreme With Teens, But Social Media Interest Dwindling
JORDAN CROOK , Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
PC Magazine parental control program list:
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,1639158,00.asp
How I Spy on My Kids Online, Ann Brenoff, Huffington Post, 3/22/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-brenoff/spying-on-kids-online_b_2839081.html