Internet Safety

For this week's blog we were asked a series of questions about internet safety. The questions (and answers) are as follows:

• When you are the teacher, what will you consider when you have younger students searching the internet? 

In the future, one thing that I will consider as a teacher is that not everything on the internet is as it seems. There are people, predators, and scammers who may try and take advantage of students who are unaware of the potential dangers. Other things that I would also consider are that there are many websites that contain material that may be inappropriate for younger viewers and that they may not know how to distinguish between information that is credible and that which is not. Also, not all search engines are age appropriate because they may be too difficult for the students to navigate or learn how to use. The internet has so much valuable information that we can gain so much knowledge from and the material is infinite and on your computer you can have all of that at the tips of your fingers. 

• Will you present it as a scary thing or a positive thing?

Overall, I will present the internet as a positive thing, however, when explaining the dangers I will be very cautious to warn my students of the hazards and bad things out there. The internet is very exciting and extremely useful when used correctly. 

• What policies are you aware of that schools have in place to protect students?

The only policies that I have experienced or that I am aware of to protect students are that many websites are blocked- like YouTube and sometimes Wikipedia. The only way to get on to these websites were if the teacher entered a code to override the block. Another policy was that we were required to have internet safety courses and had to past a test and get parental permission before being granted internet access.

• Find and share some solutions or good resources that may help with this topic.

Some solutions are to give the students a list of alternative search engines such as:

• KidRex
• KidzSearch
• Kidtopia 
• for a list of more child friendly websites click here

Another solution is to make sure the children are well educated on the potential dangers and know how to correctly use the internet. This can be achieved by showing them many types of stimulus to get the point across such as videos, articles, and even quiz them on the material.