What You Need to Know About Internet Safety

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What You Need to KnowAbout Internet Safety

• PTA Council
• February 15, 2006

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Internet is Global

• The Internet is a global network of networks
• No single country can set the rules
• Community standards vary by community
• It relies on self regulation

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Benefits of the Internet

• Instant Communications
• e-mail, chat, school, club and company web sites
• News and Reference
• every major newspaper now online
• encyclopedias
• curriculum
• Entertainment
• movie guides, music, online videos and much more
• Commerce
• Shop, find plane schedules and travel bargains,
  sell via the net

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Most People Have Good Experiences

• Most people do not run into serious problems
• There are far more great sites than sites that
  are inappropriate
• There are ways to minimize risk and maximize
  benefits
• You are at a far greater risk in the off-line
  world than you are online

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A Computer is Not a Baby Sitter

• There are some risks
• Parents and educators must work with
  children/students
• Guide students and learn from them

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When Youre Online Youre in Public

• Kids can communicate with others via
• e-mail
• chat
• newsgroups
• web pages
• Using
• words, pictures, sound, video

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There are some risks

• Exposure to inappropriate material
• Physical harm or child missing
• Harassment

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MySpace.Com

• A place for young people to blog

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Blogs

• Personal journals posted on the Internet
• Entries posted in reverse chronological order
• Each entry contains area of comments from readers
• Blogging is social event (gets attention while
  hiding behind computer)

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Teens and Blogs

• Pros
• Nurtures social skills
• Fills need for self expression
• Builds writing skills

• Cons
• Online sexual predator gleans info to create
  profile of the author
• Anonymity can give rise to cyberbullying and
  slander

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Some statistics

• About one in five online teens between the ages
  of 12 and 17 about 4 million people has created
  a blog

• A slightly higher number report having a personal
  Web page
• A trend fueled by the availability of free,
  easy-to-use services like Facebook and MySpace

Pew Internet and American Life Project
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From their website

• Use MySpace to meet new friends, meet a new
  person and perhaps spark love interest, inform
  your circle of friends with info on current
  events, or start an organization or group with
  people that share the same ideas as yourself. The
  possibilities are endless and MySpace is a great
  tool to have.

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How MySpace works

• Create a profile
• Invite your friends
• View your friends' profiles... and their friends'
  profiles
• Browse and search other profiles
• Contact your friends or make new friends

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Why students join MySpace?

• Have fun
• Share photos
• Share journal entries
• Make new friends

From the MySpace.com website
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Concerns -- many students are

• Revealing personal info that can identify them
• Pouring their hearts out
• Posting provocative pictures
• Discussing real or imagined sex lives
• Berating and threatening one another
• Recounting drinking and drug use

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What Parents Can Do
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How Parents Can Reduce Risks

• Make sure children are only exchanging e-mail
  with people they/you know
• Monitor general behavior and attitude
• Discuss these rules and post them near the
  computer as a reminder
• Remember to monitor compliance with these rules,
  especially when it comes to the amount of time
  your children spend on the computer

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Guidelines for Parents/Educators (1)

• Never give out identifying information in public
  message
• On a bulletin board
• In a chat room
• Using Instant Messenger
• Identifying information includes
• home address, school name, or telephone

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Guidelines for Parents/Educators (2)

• Get to know the Internet and any services
  students use
• Ask students what they do online
• Become familiar with all the things that you can
  do online

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Guidelines for Parents (3)

• Place the computer in a family room or other
  public part of the house. Not in a childs
  bedroom.
• Be involved with your childs use of the
  Internet.
• Surf together
• Reinforce good habits
• Have your child teach you!

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Guidelines for Parents (4)

• Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face
  meeting with another computer user without
  parental permission.

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Guidelines for Parents (5)

• Never respond to messages or bulletin board items
  that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent,
  threatening, or make you feel uncomfortable.
• Encourage children to tell you if they encounter
  such messages.
• Help them understand that it is not their fault
• Dont overreact or punish your child for
  confiding in you

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Game Time!!

• HHH website
• Staff and Human Resources
• Staff Presentations -- Internet Safety
• Identify the Bad Guys
• Just a Chat

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What We Are Doing?

• What Can We Do?

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Internet Safety and Staff

• Educating teachers and administrators
• Working with teachers to prepare age appropriate
  lesson plans

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Internet Safety and Students

• Elementary Level
• Internet Safety lessons given by librarians as
  part of Character Education program
• Middle School Level
• Upcoming advisories devoted to Internet Safety
• High School Level
• Devoting class periods to Internet Safety lessons

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Student Rules for Online Safety

• 1. I will not give out personal information such
  as my address, telephone number, parents' work
  address/telephone number or the name and location
  of my school without my parents' permission.
• 2. I will tell my parents right away if I come
  across any information that makes me feel
  uncomfortable.
• 3. I will never agree to get together with
  someone I "meet" online without first checking
  with my parents. If my parents agree to the
  meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public
  place and bring my mother or father along.

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More Rules for Online Safety

• 4. I will never send a person my picture or
  anything else without first checking with my
  parents.
• 5. I will not respond to any messages that are
  mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It
  is not my fault if I get a message like that. If
  I do I will tell my parents right away so that
  they can contact the online service.
• 6. I will talk with my parents so that we can set
  up rules for going online. We will decide upon
  the time of day that I can be online, the length
  of time I can be online, and appropriate areas
  for me to visit. I will not access other areas or
  break these rules without their permission.

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Report Illegal Material

• Child pornography or any other illegal activities
  directed at children should be reported to the
  CyberTipline at www.missingkids.com/cybertip.

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Resources

• HHH website
• Our District For Families
• HHH Community Library
• http//hhhl.suffolk.lib.ny.us/
• Pew Internet and American Life Project
• Teens and Technology

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• Disneys CyberNetiquette Comix (www.cybernetiquett
  e. (www.ala. disney.com
• Librarian's Guide to Cyberspace org/parents/)

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Resources

• SafeKids.Com (www.safekids.com
• SafeTeens.Com (www.safeteens.com)
• America Links Up (www.americalinksup.com)

This is a partial listing. Youll find more at
the SafeKids.Com other sites link
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• National Center for Missing and Exploited
  Children (www.missingkids.com)
• CyberTipLine (www.missingkids.com/cybertip/)
• FBI (www.fbi.gov/kids/kids.htm) nts/
• CyberAngels(www.cyberangels.org)

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Questions???