Group items tagged

AOL has unveiled a new online safety education Web site, SafetyClicks.com, and introduced an improved version of its free, downloadable parental controls software (parentalcontrols.aol.com). To develop content, SafetyClicks.com worked closely with ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit safety organization. For organizations and Internet safety experts that have direct contact with parents, educators, kids and teens, AOL continues to build relationships with them to promote awareness of online safety. "Friends of SafetyClicks.com" includes organizations such as ConnectSafely, ESRB, Enough Is Enough, Family Online Safety Institute, GetNetWise, Internet Keep Safe Coalition, iSafe, LOOKBOTHWAYS, NetFamilyNews, NetSmartz411, ParentDish, WebWiseKids, WiredSafety, WorkingMother.

Last year, Congress passed the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act,which called for yet another committee to study Internet safety. By statute, the Online Safety and Technology Working Group is made up of representatives of the business community, public interest groups and federal agencies.

Disney.com Internet Safety site with safety rules, a parent/child internet contract, and safety tips. Developed in collaboration with Wired Safety.

Think.com's safety lesson with nets standards. Think.com is excellent to use with younger students and is very walled and has an excellent profanity filter. I highly recommend it and have personally used it for a summer blogging project. Excellent site. It also requires an extensive verification process by the participating schools.

Excellent lesson plan and activities from think.com for teaching digital citizenship, particularly safety and netiquette.

"The global board will include representatives from Internet safety groups with which Facebook already has relationships. They include Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute." The global board will include representatives from Internet safety groups with which Facebook already has relationships. They include Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute.

School districts are improving their physical security, but they might be neglecting the security of their computer infrastructure, if the results of an annual survey are any indication. The average physical safety rating of K-12 school districts improved by 39 percent over 2007, while the average cyber safety rating declined by 25 percent during the same time period, according to CDW-G's "2008 School Safety Index," which is designed to mark the current state of K-12 school safety.

The Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative (Michigan CSI) is an Internet safety education program with customized presentations for kindergarten through eighth-grade students and a community seminar. There are many downloadable handouts for educators and parents, including an online safety contract, social networking discussion questions (parent dialogue with child), templates, slides and sample presentations.

Media stories over the past year have heightened public awareness regarding cyber safety, teens and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) use. The emphasis of media attention has often been on the victimization and bullying of teens occurring on social network sites such as Myspace and Facebook. The prominence placed on ICT platforms, such as the Internet and Cell Phones, as threatening spheres has resulted in a narrow view of cyber security. Instead, I argue that we need to rethink the meaning of cyber safety for teens and begin a more complex dialog about best cyber safety practices.

We can never eliminate all risk; but there are ways to maximize our students' safety while using these incredibly powerful tools. Each tool needs to be analyzed individually to ascertain its benefits and the specific risks it might present. From there, thoughtful people can find solutions to the student safety issues that may arise.\nAs educational leaders we need \nto be safety conscious. We need to be prudent, reasonable; but we won't live in \nfear and we won't act from fear.\nIt is by opening doors, not closing \nthem that we create new possibilities for our children and new futures for \nourselves.

Started in January 2008 by the founders of MyYearbok.com, SocialSafety.org is an effort to educate US teens on the dangers of social networking. Social Safety provides hundreds of thousands of free safety education packets for U.S. high school students, and provides free safety content to any student or site that requests it.

Task Force Recommendations for best practices for child online safety. Point Smart. Click Safe. is an initiative of the cable industry to educate parents about online safety and appropriate use of the Internet by their children.

Download the full report on Task Force Recommendations for best practices for child online safety. Point Smart. Click Safe. is an initiative of the cable industry to educate parents about online safety and appropriate use of the Internet by their children.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez is proposing a federal grant program to research and educate children about Internet safety. Menedez, D-N.J., said he is hopeful that educating teenagers, teachers and parents will stop children from sending explicit photos of themselves over cell phones and the Internet. The grant proposal would authorize $25 million to $35 million each year for Internet safety programs. The grants would be awarded on a two-year basis and administered by the Department of Justice.

This Web Wise Kids cell phone safety program for middle school children is titled It's Your Call. Based on true stories, it is an interactive game that allows users to play out difficult situations in the safety of cyberspace before they live them out in real life. The game offers teens guidance about responsible cell phone behaviors and how to use these devices to enhance their personal safety. Players become a live action character in an interactive movie and are presented with a series of difficult decisions in a slice-of-life context. The teens must make tough decisions and view the consequences of their actions in the video.

Stephen Balkam in conversation with Ambassador David Gross. Family Online Safety Institute Conference in the Middle East/Promoting Online Safety and Cyber Ethics

With its evidence room overflowing with cell phones, the Richmond County school board is wanting to give away what it has taken 15 years to collect. The board decided to give the phones back to students when it changed its policy for cell phones in June. The policy replaces the often-criticized rule to seize phones for 365 calendar days when a pupil is caught with one. In 15 years, 5,725 phones were taken from students, according to the public safety department. Of those, 4,566 were still being held by the department this summer. Under the new rules, a parent has 10 days to claim a phone before it is turned in to public safety on the first offense. For a second offense and any phones not claimed at the school on the first offense, public safety takes the phone for 30 days.

VERY helpful document!!!

A growing number of people are promoting Internet Safety Education in effort to keep youngsters safe from Internet sex offenders. But be cautious about some of the statistics that you may find from lectures, pamphlets, videos and web sites. Not all of the data accurately reflects what researchers have learned about cyberpredator crimes. For the real stats and myths vs. realities on child predators , download a copy of: Internet Safety For Teens: Getting it Right . This fact sheet (created by Dr. David Finkelhor at the Crimes Against Children Research Center) is packed with helpful clarifying information for your next presentation.

School Library Journal [Jan 07] Practical advice from attorney and cybersafety expert, Nancy Willard, on a common sense approach to online safety. Nancy proposes that library media specialists add "stranger literacy" to their curriculum for information literacy to help teens and children learn to assess the safety and trustworthiness of online encounters. She also offers helpful guidelines.

This team of 6th graders captured 2nd place honors in the 2007 annual ThinkQuest competition for their entry, "Internet Safety, Keeping It Real." Topics covered include predators, cyberbullying and online safety. Although it does lean a little heavy on the side of fear-mongering, this was an excellent effort by a team of kids!

Blog post resource for parents, students and teachers on cyberbullying and internet safety.

This blogpost is intended as a resource for parents, pupils and staff and came from the excellent PHSCE evening for parents recently organised by Ms Tina Duff. It supported the strong approach to these topics by the school's senior leadership team. Cyberbullying and Internet Safety have been the subject of whole school assemblies and are part of the IT curriculum taught in KS2 and KS3 when pupils are given their own blogs and encouraged to use social networking tools to support their learning in class.

The Boston Public Schools Internet Safety Website contains resources and strategies for parents, teachers and students to use in order to help promote online safety. There are some great classroom posters here for download.