Online Safety
Digital Citizenship Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 4
This installment will focus on online safety. Below you will find student opinions, statistics, articles and parent and student survey results to help you start the conversation at home.
Protecting your children online can seem like a daunting task, especially if they have possession of a mobile device. While it may seem like dangers lurk around every corner, many experts assert that the online world is a positive place for your children to be. And while the tips below can help you steer your children on a safe course, it is important to maintain vigilance by staying current and helping your children understand the ramifications of exposure and exploration.
Google’s Safety Center provides sound advice to parents with their Online Safety Road Show, presenting five basic tips that can serve as excellent starting points for parents and children to plan safe and ethical use of technology. The tips are: 1) Think before you share; 2) Protect your stuff; 3) Know and use your settings; 4) Avoid scams; and 5) Be positive. For parents who find the technology world overwhelming at times, Google’s Family Basics page can help you organize your conversations around important issues like privacy settings, passwords and age restrictions. Google’s Safety Center has many more links to help you help your children safely navigate the web.
Included below are some important safety issues organized around the results of our most recent parent survey. Throughout, you will find useful links to help you become more knowledgeable and tech savvy as you guide your children through their tween and adolescent years. The charts show the comparison between parents’ and students’ responses to the same questions. When comparing the data, make sure you find the student charts that represent the age group of your own children (under 13, or 13 and up.) The surveys are divided this way because the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was designed to protect children under the age of thirteen. The original 1998 COPPA document can be found here.
Click here for statistics on children and online safety.
8th Grade Student Opinions on Online Safety
Eighth grade Media class students were recently asked to weigh in on two online safety questions: 1) What kinds of personal information are you comfortable sharing online? and 2) What precautions do you take to protect your privacy? Here are some of their responses:
I am okay with sharing my hobbies, like sports, etc., sometimes my first name. For example, I have an Instagram, but I made sure that my account was private as soon as I made the account.
I like sharing photos and my personal opinions about things they have sent me. The precautions I take to protect my privacy is to never share anything inappropriate.
I feel comfortable sharing only with my friends and family things such as pictures. I take my online accounts very seriously like I only talk to the people I know. If I do not know the person I block them.
I am comfortable sharing my full name, my email, and my gender. I don't give my number or address to people online. If someone who I follow but don't know requests to follow me, I get to know them first and then maybe accept.
I am comfortable with sharing my name. To protect my privacy I only talk to people I know online and only let people I know look at my social media accounts.
I only have a few social media accounts, Instagram and Pinterest. On Instagram I have a private account and only interact with people I know. On Pinterest I also only interact with people I know and my profile picture is of my dog. I only share my name to the public on Instagram and have locations off. Those who I don't know can't access my account and photos.
I always make sure that my accounts are private and I think twice before I post something. I’m okay with posting a picture of me with my face showing as long as only my friends and family can see it, not strangers.
I am comfortable sharing my first and last name and my age and the state I live in. Some precautions I take is having private social media accounts and regulating who I let follow me.
I am comfortable sharing pictures of me and and my friends online or my location (not
address) because my Instagram account is private and only friends follow me. I do things like make my accounts private, block creepy people, don't include my address, and ask permission to post pictures of people before I post them.
Privacy
Children may be posting personal information - theirs, yours, their friends’ - and they may be sharing more than you know. They are often unaware of how social media sites keep default privacy settings to a minimum strength. Children do not realize that photos and off-hand remarks and comments make them easily identifiable; photos of them in their school “spirit wear” or sports team clothing, and mentions of their school name or town, or the locations of their social plans can literally put them on the map.
Common Sense Media: Privacy and Internet Safety
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/privacy-and-internet-safety
Excellent source for articles, videos and parent tips.
Basic Internet Safety
http://www.netsmartz.org/InternetSafety
Another thorough resource for parents. From this starting page, get helpful tips and even discussion starters for topics including cyberbullying, online predators, exposure to inappropriate material and the sharing of too much information.
Exploration and Exposure
As you know, the middle childhood years are years of rapid development and what you have always loved about your child’s natural curiosity and explorer’s temperament will now be translated into a search for identity. Children today have the world at their fingertips, and the potential for meeting strangers online, or being exposed to adult material, is extremely high.
The UK is leading the world in online safety
This article, while describing Britain’s initiatives to protect children from online dangers, contains important discussion points for parents: specifically, online predators and exposure to pornography.
Onguard Online
https://www.onguardonline.gov/features/feature-0001-featured-info-kids
Government online safety website you and your children could explore together; includes games to learn how to be safe online.
Safe Browsers and search sites for children
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/kid-safe-browsers-and-search-sites
Downloading files
New apps and games are released daily, much to the delight of our children. The availability of video and music content on a multitude of platforms gives children access to an endless array of entertainment and distractions. Their propensity for instant gratification coupled with rapid, yet short-lived reward, gives children little time or patience for, let alone develop an understanding of how to properly vet the trustworthiness of their downloads. In turn, this leaves the whole family vulnerable to a variety of malware including viruses and spyware that can easily lead to loss of data and identity theft.
Kids’ Rules for Online Safety (appropriate for children up to 6th grade)
http://www.safekids.com/kids-rules-for-online-safety/
This could serve as a “contract” parents could establish for their children, up to 6th grade.
Teen Pledge for being Smart and Safe Online (appropriate for 7th grade and up)
http://www.safekids.com/teen-pledge-for-being-smart-online//
This could serve as a “contract” parents could establish for their children, 7th grade and up.
Larry Magid’s “Child Safety on the Information Highway — 2013 — 20th Anniversary Edition”
http://www.safekids.com/child-safety-on-the-information-highway/
This article identifies the benefits and risks of being online.
Anonymity, Cyberbullying and Harassment, and the Social Currency of “Likes”
The more active children are on social media, the more the potential for being attacked. Cyberbullying can be as anonymous and insidious as a “hot or not” rating site, or as direct as hurtful or threatening comments on an Instagram post. Many children are attracted to the anonymous comments sites like Yik Yak or Whisper like a moth to a flame. Compounding the issue is the addictive nature of these apps due to the potential for accruing the highest number of “likes.” And since the perpetrators of hate receive no tangible feedback from their victims, empathy and morality are completely absent. The fact that there are so many of these types of apps raises interesting questions about how much people feel the need to speak their mind behind the safety of anonymity and could be a compelling starting point for a conversation with your children.
Are Anonymous Apps Spreading Hate? By Jane Porter, Scholastic Choices, March 2015
http://choices.scholastic.com/story/are-anonymous-apps-spreading-hate
This article investigates who is creating anonymous apps and why.
Why These Apps Can Make High School a Nightmare, By Alyssa Newcomb, ABC News, May 6, 2014
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/secret-messaging-apps-make-high-school-nightmare/story?id=23597535
Learn about the rumor and gossip apps that tweens and teens are so attracted to, and which they use to victimize others.
Stop Cyberbullying
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html
This website will help you learn all the ways kids use cyberspace to bully their victims, and help you watch for signs that your child may be exposed to such abuse.