Ensuring Safety

Although nearly all schools are wired for Internet use, some teachers are still wary of the potential dangers associated with using the Internet with their students. However, with a proper understanding of the risks involved (and careful preparation to minimize them), the Internet is actually one of the safest and most enriching places adolescents can spend time today.

This section provides an overview of the major factors that can create an unsafe environment, what can go wrong, and how to avoid the potential risks in order to ensure safety for students.

Safety Factors | Potential Pitfalls | Guidelines and Policies

Safety Factors

The first step in minimizing the risks associated with using the Internet with students is understanding the types of information students will have access to. Types of information include:

Misrepresented Information
Through use of the Internet, students gain access to a rich array of educational resources, up-to-the-minute news, and other significant information. However, just because it can be found on the Internet does not mean the information is accurate. In fact, teachers need to teach students how to distinguish trustworthy, truthful, and unbiased information from resources that are inaccurate, misleading, and fictional. See the Evaluating Information section for tips, tools, and helpful resources for critically evaluating web sites.

Unsolicited Communication
Email, chat rooms, instant messaging, listservs, and discussion groups provide students new ways to solve problems, collaborate, improve written communication, gather and share ideas with others, and have a public voice often for the first time. But there are dangers inherent in online communication, such as unsolicited and inappropriate communication by others. To ensure that students remain safe when communicating online, see Guidelines and Policies (below) for strategies, tips, tools, guidelines, and classroom policies.

Unwanted Advertisements
Many web sites contain advertisements that are inappropriate or distracting to students. Because these ads are designed to attract students to their sites, it is sometimes difficult for adolescents, especially those new to the Internet, to discern a carefully placed ad from another graphic on a web page. Teaching students how to recognize advertisements and why not to click on them is an important step in minimizing risks online.

Invasion of Privacy
Alluring contests, surveys, games, and product marketing activities are often designed to deceptively collect personal information about students. Teachers need to make sure students are aware of these guises and teach students never to give out their email address, passwords, or personal information of any kind online.

Sites That Matter

Listed below are sites that describe the risks associated with using the Internet with students.

Child Safety on the Information Highway
This article describes the benefits and risks associated with using the Internet with children. It also provides guidelines to help parents reduce the risks involved in surfing the Internet, as well as rules they can discuss with their children.
www.safekids.com/child_safety.htm

GetNetWise
GetNetWise is a public service web site created by public interest organizations and Internet industry corporations to ensure that families have safe online experiences. The site contains an in-depth overview of potential risks; safety guides and tips tailored to specific age groups; comprehensive definitions, descriptions, and glossaries of important terms and tools to use; and links to educationally appropriate web sites.
www.getnetwise.org/

Web of Deception
A report published by the Center for Media Education, Web of Deception provides an overview of interactive marketing and advertising techniques used by corporations to grab hold of kids' attention, deceptively exploit their thinking, and sometimes even gain access to personal information.
www.cme.org/children/marketing/deception.pdf

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
COPPA requires commercial web sites to obtain permission from a parent before collecting, using, or releasing personal information (including email addresses) from children under age 13. Operative as of April 21, 2000, COPPA is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. Every teacher should review the basic provisions and evaluate the necessary steps to take to ensure that their students are safe when using the Internet in the classroom.
www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/

Potential Pitfalls

The second step in minimizing the risks involved in using the Internet with students is understanding the specifics of what can go wrong. Potential pitfalls include the following:

• Students give out personal information about themselves or others on web sites or in discussions.
  
  
• Students trust all sources of information simply because they are found online.
  
  
• Students gain access to inappropriate web sites.
  
  
• Students communicate with strangers.
  
  
• Students become enticed and lost in a maze of advertisements.
  
  
• Students hack into other computer systems.
  
  
• Students display inappropriate behavior online.
  
  
• Students copy or use resources without citing the sources.

Sites That Matter

Listed below are sites that can help teachers avoid potential pitfalls and ensure that students are safe when using the Internet in their classrooms.

SafeKids.com
This site provides articles, guidelines, suggestions, advice, and tips for using the Internet safely with kids. It also includes a listing of kid-safe search engines, an online safety quiz for students, and a slide show about online safety that teachers can share with their schools.
www.safekids.com/

Internet Rules of the Road: Do's and Don'ts
Created by the U.S. Department of Justice for adolescents and teens, this web page provides a list of Do's and Don'ts for using the Internet properly. www.usdoj.gov/kidspage/do-dont/do-dont.htm

WebWatchers
Developed by NetSmartz for teachers and parents, this document provides a curriculum titled "Stay Safer Online" that comes with "Internet Safety Rules" tips and lesson cards.
www.netsmartz.org/PARENTS/pdf/WWLes2.pdf

SafetyEd International
SafetyEd International is a nonprofit organization dedicated to Internet safety. The site contains a rich array of resources aimed at providing teachers, parents, students, and libraries with information they need to make using the Internet safe. The site offers articles, advice, FAQs, safe-surfing agreements, tips, and help on a range of Internet topics.
www.safetyed.org/

Guidelines and Policies

The third step in minimizing potential risks and ensuring safety online is to take practical precautions, establish rules, and review Internet use policies with students ahead of time. Listed below are strategies teachers should use to ensure students' safe use of the Internet:

• Review the school's or district's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for use of the Internet before engaging students in Internet research.
  
  
• Develop an Internet safety policy or adapt or use as is one of the many Internet safety policies found on the Internet. Teachers should make sure they review the policy with students before they go online. Teachers need to outline the consequences for violating the Internet safety policy.
  
  
• Discuss with students what to do if they happen upon a site that they feel is inappropriate or makes them feel uncomfortable.
  
  
• Always supervise students when they are using the Internet. Never let students use the Internet alone.
  
  
• Do not let students communicate with individuals on the Internet unless a teacher or technology coordinator has initially set up the communication. Teachers should not ban communication altogether. Instead, teachers should set clear guidelines about acceptable use of email, instant messaging, discussion groups, and chat rooms. Teachers must make sure students are communicating only in pre-approved educational discussion areas. Teachers must watch for offensive and inappropriate language.
  
  
• Teach students to never give out personally identifiable information when communicating with others (i.e., full name, address, email address, phone number, school, etc.).
  
  
• Require students to search for specific information, as opposed to "surfing" the Internet haphazardly.
  
  
• Bookmark web sites ahead of time. This is a good way to control students' exposure to inappropriate sites.
  
  
• Preview or test web sites before sending students to visit them.
  
  
• Require students to record in a bibliographic format the URLs of the sites they use.

Sites That Matter

Listed below are sites that provide Internet safety guides and acceptable use policies to use with students.

I-Safe Surfing Contract
I-Safe America provides a printable contract for "safe surfing" that students can read and sign before using the Internet.
www.isafe.org/contract.html

Develop an "Acceptable Use Policy" (AUP)
This site provides an overview of Acceptable Use Policies and provides links to sample contracts used by schools and libraries within the U.S.
www.monroe.lib.in.us/~lchampel/netadv3.html

Internet Safety Screen Savers
TECH CORPS®, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Dr. Scholl Foundation have developed free downloadable screensavers that teachers can load onto their classrooms' computers to remind students of online safety rules.
www.webteacher.org/windows.html
(Click on The Web in Your Classroom button, then select the Internet Safety link to access the screen savers.)