Teachers warned about communicating with students via social networking sites

How teens manage their identity online (63% believe that someone could identify them from the info provided even if they don't put personal details like address and phone).

Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, is adding more \nthan 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and \ncyberbullies, attorneys general from several states said Thursday.

Most parents accept the importance of digital media but wonder about the impact on students social skills, according to findings from a Common Sense Media poll.

An online course on how to use the internet safely and effectively.

Eighty-one percent of kids have visited a social networking site such as MySpace \nor Facebook. Yet more than 50% of schools block social networking altogether and \nover 80% block instant messaging and chatting services.

The challenge for education "How do we handle the abundance of inputs and outputs available to our students given the scarcity of two major problems in our schools: Allowed / Accepted Channels of Access (number of computers per child, bandwidth, filtering, restrictions on publishing, etc...) and time. \n

video for educators and students on the importance of online safety

Bloom's Taxonomy redefined for the digital world.

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.

Cyberbullying resulting in 12 year old suicide

ToonDoo is a create-your-own Comic Strip tool. This comic strip was created by a student on the topic of cyberbullying.

WiredSafety provides help, information and education to Internet and mobile device users of all ages. We help victims of cyberabuse ranging from online fraud, cyberstalking and child safety, to hacking and malicious code attacks. We also help parents with issues, such as MySpace and cyberbullying.

How to handle cyberbullying

"Just how radically is the Internet transforming the experience of childhood?" The program talks with experts in child psychology, teenagers who've created online personalities for themselves, parents, and others who are involved in this restructuring of the childhood experience..."

June 2007 Report. About one third (32%) of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities - such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online.\n\n

Information for parents and educators, slides, podcast, press realise, fact sheets (on research: children and the internet), fact sheets: ensure safety online.

links to books by Nancy Willard, excecutive director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use