Cyber Safety

We truly are living in different times. I think back to my computer lab in elementary school and we had never even heard of the Internet, much less blogging, social networking, and youtube. I think parents can do 1 of 2 things. They can either shelter their children and not allow them to participate in these computer activities, or they can equip them with the tools they need to be cyber smart and ready to enter the world wide web.

The Internet is such an incredible tool and our society is becoming more and more dependent on it. As a teacher, I love nothing more than to see my students researching online, finding and working on engaging websites, blog at home to work on class assignments, etc. That being said, I feel confident that my students are educated on Internet safety. My students have watched web safety videos and we have a great filtering system at school. One problem we have faced in the classroom is with google images. Inappropriate pictures can pop up when a child is innocently looking for a school-related picture. My students have learned to cover the screen and report it to me. It is a reality and it's not going away, so I want my students to handle it appropriately.

I loved the cyber ethics for kids website and I plan on sharing it with my students and parents. I think the FBI also has a good site for kids http://www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/safety2.htm. I really liked this site, it is from cyber criminals most wanted. http://www.ccmostwanted.com/kids/interactive.htm There are some great interactive sites for students to explore on. This would be great to show your students.

This is a good youtube video on looking out for predators online.

This is a another good youtube video for teachers and students. It talks about giving too much information online and what you should do to do the right thing.