Internet Safety Assignment

READING:
For my additional reading I chose, "I Have a Question" by: William Porter. The question of "How can our family take advantage of what is available on the Internet while avoiding objectionable material and people of questionable character?" has been one I have asked myself several times as I prepare to have a family of my own.

WATCHING:
iKeepSafe Faux Paws -
I thought it was a really fun way to show children what they need to know for internet safety. The activities were fun, and also a really good reminder to children what they should stay away from.
PBS: A Revolution in Classrooms and Social Life -
I liked that they first talked about the importance of why students need technology, and how he said when they walk into a classroom with no media it's like walking into a desert and have nothing to do. They talked about the different things online that teenagers use and what they do with them.
Netsafe Utah: Cybersafe your Teens -
Shows parents what potential dangers are online that teens could run into. This program shows the parents what they can do to help their teens stay out of trouble.

DOING:
I was surprised by the large number of the teens who are getting into chat rooms or in other situations that can be potentially dangerous. Some of the most important things I learned were that to protect our children we must be aware, set rules, and have a filtering system of some sort. I used to have a really hard time with the idea that parents would need to set filters or not allow them to use computers on their own. I know that sounds silly, but I always thought it would cause more problems by being so strict. However, after watching these videos and reading more on the topic I have been surprised to see that most of the time problems are ran into by accident and teens proceed out of curiosity. Filters will prevent accidental runons for the most part, but I also believe that if computers are in private places teens will be more likely to look for things out of curiousity. Putting your computer in a public part of the house will help with this because they know there is someone watching them.

I decided to interview and teach of friend of mine who's children I have watched for years and two which are really getting into technology as social networking. Her kids are 12, 10, 6, and 4. I asked her what she knew about internet safetly, and what she was currently doing to protect her children from potential online dangers. She used to have a laptop for the kids and only her and her husband knew the password, but they found that it was causing problems so they told them two older children the password. They monitor the little ones, but for the most part let the two oldest govern themselves as long as they have permission to be on the computer and the kids have told them what they will be using it for. She also told me that they currently have no filtering device for the internet. After hearing this I told her some of the things I had found and that eventhough I used to feel the same way and didn't want my kids to feel I don't trust them, that there are still certain things that she could do to prevent accidental problems. After sharing some of the research and ideas to safeguard her kids without being too overzealous she was very appreciative. I think that she will for sure set more limits as far as when and where they can use the computer and also go back to having the children not knowing the password especially since they are gone a lot and are unaware of when they are actually using it.