Safety Issues on the Internet

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Safety Issues on the Internet
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Safety Concerns

• Access to inappropriate material
• Parental decision as to what is offensive
• Schools must design procedures that meet the full
  spectrum of students (different religions,
  beliefs, acceptances)
• Danger of chatrooms
• Students should never give out personal
  information on the Internet

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Reliability

• Anonymity
• A person on the Internet might be dishonest in
  their self-description or motives
• Internet sites or E-mails may be deceptive in
  their content descriptions
• Viruses spread through e-mail
• Suspicious chat rooms or Internet sites
• Never open an E-mail from someone you dont trust
• Never allow a website to execute a program on
  your computer unless you know what the program is
  and does

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Chat Rooms

• Children should never agree to meet with someone
  they met on the Internet in real life.
• Dangerous if parents or teachers do not know who
  their child is chatting with
• The Internet is sort of anonymous. . . But there
  are ways of finding out who said what Always
  be respectful and dont say anything on the
  Internet you wouldnt say in person.

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Filtering Devices

• Numerous filtering devices are available, some
  for free, to prevent children from accessing
  pornographic material on the web.
• Censoring of material that might be relevant to
  students may occur. Choose filtering devices
  wisely, and check them out yourself before
  implementing them for your students.

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Harassment

• Receiving junk mail and pop-up ads are just one
  form of harassment faced on the web
• Children or adolescents may also face bullying
  adults or other minors saying mean or
  inappropriate things to them via e-mail or chat
  rooms.
• Monitor both the messages that are sent and
  received.

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The Internet is a VALUABLE tool.

• The possible risks of using the Internet are far
  outweighed by its benefits
• Access to international publications and
  thoughts, libraries, newspapers, articles,
• There is a huge wealth of information, so keep
  safe so we can keep using it!