After doing some research that included websites by Common Sense Media and the FBI, I was able to create some slides with pertinent information to share with the parents at this conference. Every parent wants their children to be safe and responsible while they are online. In general, the best first step is to have a conversation with you child to help them understand the seriousness of Internet safety, and to arm them with some strategies for dealing with potential issues. Here are a few things that parents can share with their children:
- Stress the importance of following established family rules about when and where to use the Internet. They should only be online when adults are around to provide supervision. They should also be required to share any account passwords with their parents.
- Remind them to be polite and respectful as they deal with others in online environments. They do not want to accidentally solicit any problems through their own behavior.
- Teach them how to understand the rules of particular websites they want to use. They should know what is not appropriate and how to report the inappropriate behaviors of others.
- Review the red flag of being asked for personal information - particularly names, addresses, phone numbers, age, email addresses, and even school names. Children should know that they can be found by strangers just by giving their name and the name of their school.
- Teach children never to send pictures of themselves or anyone else in their family to someone they have never met.
- Finally, it is not always easy to define "inappropriate" behavior. Teach your children with words that they will immediately understand. They should immediately tell a trusted adult if anything "mean" or "creepy" happens while they are online.
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4 comments:
I really appreciate the fact that you included an infographic that you created on your blog. Cyberbullying is such a real threat in our society. It is very important for parents to start by having a conversation with their children. More often than not, this conversation doesn't happen. On one resource, I found that they mentioned having the family computer in a central location. That allows for monitoring without snooping. I do believe that parents should have access to their children's accounts, but to a degree. I think the parent should share with the student when they are going to go on their account. Don't be secretive about it or the student won't trust you. I have to share with my students that sharing their personal information also is included in gaming situations. There seems to be much more of this in gaming. Students don't understand that this rule also pertains in those situations. Sharing if they feel scared, creeped out, or that someone is mean will put it into their own perspective and words. This is important to help them learn as children.
"Teach them how to understand the rules of particular websites they want to use. They should know what is not appropriate and how to report the inappropriate behaviors of others. " This is a great guideline! There are so many different web environments with so many different communication protocols, that understanding each specific site is really important. It's not that different from a conversation about informal and formal registers of speech, or formal and informal formats for written expression. Literacy is about being able to apply the right tool in the right situation, and digital citizenship is a big part of that.
You are absolutely correct. Students need to better understand the dangers with cyberbullying. I like how you included the infographic help students understand. You have very good guidelines when it comes to cyberbullying. Talking online isn't so different as talking face to face, and students forget that.
First of all, the infographic is awesome! It's a quick and visual way to be informed about how to deal with cyber bullying.
Secondly, I really like your last point regarding the difficultly of defining inappropriate online behavior. As a parent and as an educator, I think it is super important to let our kids know that that should let us know the second something doesn't feel right or if anything online makes them feel uncomfortable. This lets us assess the safety risk of an activity or individual online, rather than relying on our kids to decide.
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