Internet
Safety
"Before you start
on a trip, you check a map, pack the snacks and follow the rules of the
road. Traveling in Cyberspace isn't much different. In fact, whether you
travel on the road or the virtual road, common sense and a good handbook
are your best travel companions."
Site
Seeing on the Internet- FTC
Even if you have been on the "net" for years, or if you are just starting out on this journey, there are things you should be aware of and be savvy about before you begin. A rule was passed by the FTC as of April 21, 2000, to protect Children's Online Privacy which states that Websites Must Obtain Parental Permission Before Collecting Children's Personal Information.
On the road, you know there are both jerks and cool people out there. The jerks are those who drive recklessly and rudely, and the cool people are savvy skilled drivers who move in and out of traffic with precision and ease. This page will help you to become one of the *skilled* drivers, and not a jerky one!
The components to become a savvy net citizen:Always Drive Safely - safety tips for the net Netiquette - how to not act like a newbie! Know Your Sources - where did the page come from and who wrote it? Privacy Matters - kidz privacy and your rights! Don't be Duped by Banner Ads! - before you click on a banner ad, think!
It's a jungle out there on the
web! Alarming statistics for parents from a 1999 CNN/Time Magazine
poll.
82% of teens surveyed use the Internet.Now, taking into consideration that these statistics are WAY old (especially compared to Internet years) don't you think the numbers are higher now? All the more reason to be cautious.
44% have been to an X-rated site.
70% of teens have accidentally stumbled across pornography online. (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation)
25% have visited hate group web sites.
14% have seen sites where they are taught how to build bombs.
62% said their parents knew little or nothing about the web sites they visit.
43% of parents have no Internet use rules for their kids to follow.
69% of the kids don't follow the rules or have none to follow.
72% of girls (57% boys) suspect they have "chatted" with people who are pretending to be someone they are not.
58% of girls (39% boys) have been asked to provide personal information like telephone number and address.
Internet Safety Sites to Explore
and Share with Your Teens:
What is iSafe?
From the foundation website:
"MISSION:
i-SAFE America, Inc. is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to
educate and
empower youth to safely and responsibly take control of their Internet
experiences.
GOAL:
The i-SAFE program provides students with the awareness and knowledge
they need
in order to recognize and avoid dangerous, destructive, or unlawful
behavior and to respond appropriately.
HISTORY:
The United States Congress has designated i-SAFE America, Inc., a non-profit
Internet safety education foundation,
to bring Internet safety education and awareness to the youth of the
nation. i-SAFE is devoted to
empowering students to take control of their Internet experiences by
giving them vital knowledge that will
enable them to act safely and responsibly. "
(Note from Gwyneth: I just learned about
this program recently - and I am very impressed! I intend to involve my
students, staff, community, and school with this program and to share it
with more technology educators.)
iSafe
Information for Parents:
Family
Internet Safety Contract Children's and Teen's Pledge
Q&A
on Child Safety
Safety
Information for Parents
Internet-Related
Safety Tips for Teens
Interactive
Safety Quizzes
Articles About Child
and Teen Safety Online
Warnings
signs that your child may have a problem with pornography on the
Internet.
Rules
of the Road: Top 10 Things to Teach Your Children to Keep Them
Safe Online
Instant
Message & Chatroom Safety Tips
A USA Today Article: Keeping Internet
predators at bay and a review of Internet filtering software.
Cyber-Sierra Workshop 2002: Security Issues:
Safe
Surfin
From the FBI: A Parent's Guide to
Internet Safety
Blog
Beware?
Dangers in Chatting, Blogging and Instant Messaging
Most
teens say they've met strangers online
Alarming
NEW statistics
Why Are Kids Still Surfing In The Bedroom?
MySpace
Invader
A police detective shows teens
and their parents that they're
not as safe on MySpace as they
think
OMG,
TMI!!!!
Sample MySpace profile with
posted Internet Safety mistakes.
An excellent streaming video series of real-life stories about Internet
safety topcs:
"Cyberbullying: Feathers in the Wind"
Cyberbullying is the use of the Internet to harass or bully others. Watch our new series and discuss with teens what they can do to avoid becoming a victim or victimizing someone else.
Julie left home for three weeks with a convicted murderer she had developed a relationship with online.
Hear the true story of a 15-year-old girl who left home to meet in person with a man she first "met" online. Read "Amy's Story" ó the story from her mother's perspective.
Even though Teresa has tried not to reveal personal information online, she's left enough clues that she could find herself in danger.
A jealous teen uses the Internet for revenge in this piece about peer-to-peer
harassment.
What do you do if someone is harassing you online? This piece discusses netiquette and how to handle harassment appropriately.
Excellent web site! Interactive,
fun and informative!
Areas for Parents
and Educators, Kids
and Teens!
Please note: this site requires FLASH!
The goal of the NetSmartz Workshop is to extend the safety awareness of children to prevent victimization and increase self-confidence whenever they go online. These goals include how to:
* enhance the ability of children to recognize dangers on the Internet
* enhance the ability of children to understand that people they first ìmeetî on the Internet should never be considered their friend
* encourage children to report victimization to a trusted adult
* support and enhance community education efforts
* increase communication between adults and children about online safety"
Book Description from Amazon.com
"Safety Monitor" provides hands-on, step-by-step, practical instruction
for parents. Using this book as a guide, they can take an active role in
protecting their children from exploitation, sexual predators, adults-only
content, pornography, and other harmful content that comes with computer
and Internet access. You'll learn:
Internet & Computer Ethics for Kids: (and Parents & Teachers Who Haven't Got a Clue.)
- How to Talk to Your Kids about the Internet: Includes an "online contract" to be signed by both parents and children
- How to Set up a Safe Computer: Learn how to configure a browser, and how to load and use child protection software programs
- How to Set up a Safe Internet Service: Using parental controls, restricting access, and setting up E-mail and file sharing on AOL and other ISPs
- How to Supervise Your Child's Internet Activity
- How to Spot and Deal with Problems
- How to Master Advanced Internet Issues: Creating safe family Web sites and pages, and Internet usage outside of the home
- The Internet is an integral part of daily life in the modern world. With the help of Detective Sullivan, parents can learn to maximize the benefits for their children while still ensuring their safety.
Book Description from Amazon.com
"Internet and Computer Ethics for Kids (and Parents and Teachers Who
Haven't Got a Clue)
The Book of cyber-ethical Questions for the Information Age
It discusses, in a non technical language that everyone can understand,
one of the most serious issues facing us today:
Hackers, Hacking and Cyber-Ethics.
1. How should kids behave on the Internet?
2. How can parents help their technically fluent children?
3. What can the schools and teachers do to assist?
Cyber Ethics is an important mission that you will want to be a part of, and this book is only the first of a series of books that will be appearing in the coming three years on the subject, all talking to a wide variety of issues. CyberEthics for Kids and Families!
Internet and Computer Ethics for Kids is the first book to actively promote family and youth values and cyberethics in an entertaining, colorful way.
Internet and Computer Ethics for Kids is a colorful, extensively illustrated book written in an easy to understand, non technical format. No other book has been specifically targeted at non technical parents, teachers and kids who are in the greatest need of ethical education on issues they donít understand.
Unlike the small handful of older books which preach ethics and tell people how to behave, Internet and Computer Ethics for Kids does not preach or suggest what is right or wrong behavior. Instead, it provides situational discussion provoking questions for the reader, the parent and the educator to discuss, evaluate and form the basis for personal ethics."
E-Mail Etiquette: Do's, Don'ts
and Disaster Tales
from People Magazine's Internet
Manners Expert
by Samantha Miller
(click on book cover for Amazon link)
Book Description from Amazon.com
The etiquette rulebook was born 4,200 years ago, when Ptah Hotep prescribed
proper behavior to ancient Egyptians. Netiquette, however, is a relatively
new field. In E-Mail Etiquette, Samantha Miller sheds light on the dos
and don'ts of attachments, mass mailings, personal and business e-correspondence,
e-mail hoaxes, viruses, spam, and e-mail privacy. "E-mail should be the
most polite form of communication ever invented," says Miller, the Internet
manners expert for People magazine. Then why is so much of it so irksome?
Miller's contributors complain about useless subject heads, unattached
attachments, and those chain letters usually sent by one's mother. Miller
herself weighs in on SHOUTING, signature lines, and emoticons. On-the-job
e-mailers are advised never to write anything in e-mail "you wouldn't want
to see tacked to the office refrigerator." Joke senders are counseled to
"think of e-mail as a cocktail party.... You don't plant yourself in front
of a group of partiers and tell jokes until they flee." Who wouldn't benefit
from discussions about why spelling matters and when it's appropriate to
e-mail a thank-you note? --Jane Steinberg
"CYBERsitter 2003 is designed primarily for home, educational and small business use. Even though CYBERsitter has been designed to be easily installed and used by the most inexperienced users, there are plenty of advanced features for power users too."
To filter or not to filter, the choice is yours parents!
Take this "Rules
of the Road" test to earn your official PBS Kids Web license!
With your parents permission, print
it out!
"What is Netiquette? Simply stated, it's network etiquette -- that is,
the etiquette of cyberspace. And "etiquette" means "the forms required
by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be required in social or
official life." In other words, Netiquette is a set of rules for behaving
properly online." For example: TYPING IN ALL CAPITOL LETTERS IS CONSIDERED
SHOUTING!!!
For more:
Read
the Core Rules of Netiquette, clicking on next page at the bottom of
each screen.
Take the 10 question Netiquette
Quiz after you have read each section. Record your score.
There's a lot of new words out there on
the net and even more acronyms! If you find a word you don't know, check
out this cool
Chat
Dictionary
Chat
Dictionary, Emoticon :-) List, & Chatiquette
Find out what those acronyms and abbreviations
stand for...
Check
out the: 
Don't have enough of these :-)? :-O Check
out the Smiley
ASCII Emoticon list!
Know
Your Sources:
How
to Validate a Web Site
Just because something is on the Internet
does not mean that it's true or reliable. One must become a savvy searcher
and know how to evaluate the sources that we see and use.
A great example of this is an article
by Alan November called The
Web -- Teaching Zack to Think. Read the article.
Sorry, you're *NOT* a winner. (Well, you are in my book!) But, just
like the junk mail you might get in your real mailbox or
email inbox, saying you've "just won!" it's a gimmick. Don't be
fooled.
This fake error ad is working on either your fear or your frustration.
Fear that you are not up-to-date with your
speed or frustration that the computer may be going too slow
(and who does not want to go faster on the net??)
What it's really trying to sell you is something else. Don't be
fooled.
"The Horizon Foundation is a strategic, action-oriented philanthropy
dedicated to improving community health and wellness. An
independent, not-for-profit public charity, our mission is to
promote and enhance the health and wellness of the
Howard County, Maryland community."
"HorizonHelp, a web-based information and referral service for residents
of
Howard County, Maryland. HorizonHelp, a project of The Horizon Foundation,
was initiated to
assist the community at large, as well as local health, human and social
service providers in
finding programs and services to fit their needs, or the needs of their
constituents."
This site was adapted and updated from: are you net savvy? a directed internet task
Federal Trade
Commission and Ms. Claudia Bourne Farrell
Ms.
Virginia Shea and her Core Rules of Netiquette
Mr.
Alan November
Safe
Surfin'
Kidz
Privacy
Maryland Public Television - MPT.
This is bigger than television.
WNET Internet
School Primer -This excellent Internet Primer is "designed especially
for K-12 teachers"
Internet Safety
Game for Kids - for Elementary kids.
Internet
Search Tools Quick Reference Guide for Students and Teachers from SEIR*TEC
- The BEST search tool cheat sheet! Print it out!
The WebQuest
Page- by Bernie Dodge - The master guru of all things WebQuest!
Get More from the Web
- This page chock full of great links to assist the educator in getting
more from the web!
Internet
Integration: A Jump Start - a resource for teachers.
WebQuests@Work
- What they are, where to find them, and how to use them.
Easy
Web Design! - A no-nonsense, easy to follow tutorial that I wrote
on how to create your own web pages using Netscape Composer.
Features a lot of screen captures and graphics so that you can be "on
the net" in a jiffy! (hope you like it!:-)
This page was made using a Mac, baby!
first created 7.12.2000
changed and adapted: 2.08.04
last updated 05.02.06
Bye!
