Internet Safety

Web Safety Questions

Before putting stock in a website, please explore the following WEB SAFE possibilities:

1. Who's in charge, here? Can I see some identification posted, of who contributed this information?

2. Evaluating objectivity is very important. Is the author trying to persuade me to take her side?

3. U.C. Berkeley advocates taking note of the domain name, whether that's a dot com, a dot org, a dot gov, etc. This is another clue to who is speaking and what their agenda might be.

4. Stay away from negative, incorrect sites. Look for these URLs: .gov, .org, .edu

5. Always make sure what's written has been cited.

6. Find out a little about what you're looking for BEFORE you begin your search.

7. Even web surfing veterans can be fooled sometimes. Look for signs that the webpage is a personal, unofficial one. A few of these signs are:

*A person's name embedded somewhere in the link

*A tilde symbol in the link: " ~ " or a percent sign: " % "

*Seeing one of the following words in the link is also not a good sign: users, people, members.

Internet Safety Activity

Most days in the classroom, we spend time learning about the natural world. Here, we will becoming better acquainted with how to safely navigate and better understand the world wide web. As you may have noticed, we inhabit a fast-paced world, and it is rapidly becoming imperative that all of us know how to safely gather information and manipulate and store data with the latest technology.

Sadly, there are those in our society who do not have the best interest of others in mind. It is up to you and me to combat the ill intent of such individuals by learning how to conduct ourselves appropriately online.

This activity will demonstrate to you and to me that you know how to protect your information and therefore yourself, on the internet.

Go to THIS site and...

    • Make one avatar. Draw it on the worksheet.

    • Watch "Copyrights" Brainpop Video. Jot down one thing you didn't know before watching this.

    • Write down how cyberbullying has affected you, then watch "How Does Cyberbullying Affect You?"

    • Watch "Digital Communications -- Facebook..." What could you add as rule #11 ?

    • Draw a stick figure/rough sketch of one free image you found.

    • Play "Passwords, How Secure is Yours"? What makes one more secure?

NOW please click on http://www.nsteens.org/Games Play ALL of the internet safety games and write your result/score for each on the bottom of the page.

When finished, play Privacy Pig Playground just for fun.

http://kidshealth.org/teen/safety/safebasics/internet_safety.html

More Lessons Learned

To help a student (or yourself) learn and remember what is safe, you can...

Post rules near the monitor

Employ filters and appropriate software

Read privacy policies from sites of magazines, banks, etc.

TALK TO YOUTH about: Not sharing ANY personal info that could leave a "trail", Not sharing passwords with A N Y O N E, and how to simply shut off the monitor if a problem arises.

Use PEER MODELING (Several of the "Real Life Stories" from www.netsmartz.org) to really get through to people you care about.

My Digital Citizenship

What is it? Scroll down to the "For the Student" video listed here.

Cyberbullying Stopped. See the student video in the "Cyberbullying" lesson topic from the above link.

Lessons Learned

What do you think of this article?

You might have noticed that we are living in a fast-paced society. The miracle of the internet is rapidly changing how teachers and students both teach and learn. Misuse of this amazing learning tool has caused harm and deception to many unfortunate and unsuspecting people--including children and young adults. With a little wisdom and preparation, we can insulate ourselves and others against the chills of inconvenience and harm.