Internet+Safety

Safety on the internet is something everyone should be worried about, but few people think of it. I know that what you post on the internet is legally binding and it never disappears even if you delete it. Once it’s on the web, it can be accessed by anyone. For middle school students they are at the age where their parents are letting them open up a Facebook account and need to be educated on how to use it safely and properly. Not only that the results a person gets when they Google information is very sad. My son is 9 going on 10 and he heard at school that Santa Claus is not real so he Googled it, and was getting images of girls in skimpy Santa outfits. This is something that is uncontrollable unless you teach students and children about the importance of internet safety and how to properly surf the web. As an educator it would be great to be able to stand over every student to make sure they are not looking at pages that they are not supposed to and are doing everything they need to. However this is not possible. Some schools have created walled gardens to prevent sites from being seen, but they don’t eliminate everything. I know that students are a lot smarter than we often give them credit for. At my school we have images and videos blocked, but the students have figured out loop holes on how to get around them and can gain access to videos and images. If they are capable of doing this who knows the kind of trouble they can get into at home. Here are some guidelines to help keep students/children safe from the FBI internet safety website Here is a link to a game students/children can play [] Resources [] [] [] References FBI. (n.d.). //A parent//. Retrieved from [] Magid, L. (2012, March 30). Kids Rules for Online Safety (for pre-teens). SafeKids.com. Retrieved July 11, 2012, from []
 * Communicate, and talk to your child about sexual victimization and potential on-line danger.
 * Spend time with your children on-line. Have them teach you about their favorite on-line destinations.
 * Keep the computer in a common room in the house, not in your child's bedroom. It is much more difficult for a computer-sex offender to communicate with a child when the computer screen is visible to a parent or another member of the household.
 * Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider and/or blocking software. While electronic chat can be a great place for children to make new friends and discuss various topics of interest, it is also prowled by computer-sex offenders. Use of chat rooms, in particular, should be heavily monitored. While parents should utilize these mechanisms, they should not totally rely on them.
 * Always maintain access to your child's on-line account and randomly check his/her e-mail. Be aware that your child could be contacted through the U.S. Mail. Be up front with your child about your access and reasons why.
 * Teach your child the responsible use of the resources on-line. There is much more to the on-line experience than chat rooms.
 * Find out what computer safeguards are utilized by your child's school, the public library, and at the homes of your child's friends. These are all places, outside your normal supervision, where your child could encounter an on-line predator.
 * Understand, even if your child was a willing participant in any form of sexual exploitation, that he/she is not at fault and is the victim. The offender always bears the complete responsibility for his or her actions.
 * Instruct your children:
 * to never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on- line;
 * to never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or on-line service to people they do not personally know;
 * to never give out identifying information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number;
 * to never download pictures from an unknown source, as there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images;
 * to never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing;
 * that whatever they are told on-line may or may not be true.