Bill MacKenty

Internet safety

Internet and computer safety often focuses on the risk of meeting a stranger online and being physically attacked. There is no doubt this danger exists, and our children need to be very careful about the sort of information they put online. The most important rules of internet safety must always be: don’t talk to strangers and don’t put highly personal information about yourself online.  A helpful reader has added that stranger abductions are quite rare, more often children voluntarily agree to meet some stranger somewhere. This also must be pushed into the mind of our kids - Never, ever agree to meet someone you met online. It’s just not safe.

While being attacked is the most serious threat online, our teenagers also face:

reputation harm
identity theft
and
online bullying

Here is a list of topics you could discuss with your students in an effort to support them being safe online.

1) What happens online, stays online, for a long time. sometimes it is difficult to erase a comment, picture, or forum post. Are you putting stuff online you would be embarrassed about 5 years from now? Are you writing anything that might reflect poorly on your character?

2) Some online social-networking sites such as myspace aren’t easy to secure - personal details and photographs are readily available for anyone to see. Do you have a myspace page? Mind if we take a look at it together? Is there anything online that could be used to identify you to strangers?

3) Our teenagers have a hard time understanding that something they put online can be visible to anyone anywhere. Let’s google your name and see what pops up. Who do you think looks at this information? How would you feel if a complete stranger looked at this information/image?

4) A special word about facebook. Facebook is a social-networking site like myspace with a very important difference; it’s invitation only. This means only people who a student knows are accepted as a “facebook friend”. However, there are “groups” in facebook which may have people a student does not know. Teens should be careful about what they write on facebook, and what they include on their facebook profile. Facebook users have a wall, which they can use to send messages back and forth. Let me see your facebook page. who are your facebook friends? do you belong to any facebook groups? Who last wrote on your wall?

5) The internet has opened up a new avenue for airing frustrations and arguments with peers. These arguments can often turn ugly, and teens can be harassed or bullied online. It’s important to talk about online bullying as you would talk about bullying in school; forthright and clear. Have you ever felt bullied online? How do you respond to online harassment? You know you can always talk to me about this stuff, right?

Here are some specific steps you could take with your students to help encourage safe computer use:

1) Put computers in public places (not in a bedroom)
2) Adopt an open door policy for discussing computer habits
3) Look for furtive gestures. If your teen quickly closes, moves or minimizes a window, ask them to show you what they are doing.

And finally, some common sense:

This internet thing is new for many parents. I think we need to teach our kids how to live in a digital world safely. I recommend against completely shutting off the internet or computers, and instead, take an active role in your child’s internet and computer use. Part of being a parent is being nosey. Talk with your teenager about computers and internet safety.