Website Archive - November, 2006
Children
Spotlight on Online Safety
Disney’s Surf Swell Island Adventures in Internet Safety is a series of 3 games featuring Mickey and his friends and focusing on the Internet safety issues of privacy, viruses and netiquette. The adventures are developed so that an adult can assist a child as needed to navigate through the adventures. There are also a Parent’s Guide with helpful tips on using the site and a Teacher’s Guide with additional activities that integrate the learning experiences into the classroom.
The iKeepSafe Kids page by the Internet Keep Safe Coalition teaches basic rules of Internet safety to children through the adventures of Faux Paw the Techno Cat. View the animated video or listen to the book (choose them from the left-side menu) or print out one of the coloring pages.
NetSmartz Kids, a resource of the NetSmartz Workshop, is an interactive, safety resource from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) for children ages 5 to 17, parents and educators. It uses age-appropriate games, activities, and music and videos to teach children how to stay safer on the internet. (After you select a game or activity, scroll back up to the top of the page to play.)
Parents
Be Web Aware by Media Awareness Network is a Canadian public education initiative for parents to raise awareness of online safety issues and to provide practical information and tools to effectively manage Internet use in the home. It has information on getting the most out of the Internet, child-friendly websites, safety tips by age, various risks associated with using the Internet, and how to take action.
GetNetWise: About…Kids Safety by the Internet Education Foundation contains an Online Safety Guide for learning about the types of risks children face online based on age levels and activities, Tools for Families to guide their children while online, and Web Sites for Kids.
StaySafeOnline.org: Eight Cyber Security Practices to Stay Safe Online by the National Cyber Security Alliance offers practical steps you can take to stay safe online and avoid becoming a victim of fraud, identity theft, or cyber crime. Click on each of the 8 steps in the left column for more details.
The Parents Guide to the Information Superhighway: Rules and Tools For Families Online by Wendy Lazarus and Laurie Lipper is a publication of the Children’s Partnership with the National PTA and the National Urban League. It is a downloadable PDF guide for parents giving information, rules and tools for online safety. It is somewhat long (36 pages) but there is a content page to find specific topics. The publication is from 1998 but still provides useful information.
The Parent Resource Center of the Internet Keep Safe Coalition’s iKeepSafe.org website teaches basic rules of Internet safety to children and their parents. The Resource Center page has hot topics, videos and tutorials, family fun lessons, activities, and a weekly digest.
Teachers
The Internet Keep Safe Coalition teaches basic rules of Internet safety to children and parents through the iKeepSafe.org website. It has an educator’s section with teaching tools for online safety including a printable book of Faux Paw the Techno Cat, a classroom guide for discussion, coloring pages, and a Faux Paw calendar (a zipped file that takes some time to download.)
Be CyberSmart! Curriculum is a free K-8 curriculum by the CyberSmart Education Company. It includes 5 units based on safety, manners, advertising, research and technology and includes lesson plans and activity sheets clustered by grade levels. It also includes printable posters and sample letters to families.
Guidelines and Resources for Internet Safety in Schools by the Virginia Department of Education, Division of Technology & Human Resources, Office of Educational Technology is a comprehensive guide developed to assist Virginia schools in integrating Internet safety into the curriculum and adding an Internet safety component to acceptable use policies. Although not all sections will be relevant, there are sections that are very applicable to all. There is also a very comprehensive web-based resource list on Internet Safety.
Kidz Privacy by the Federal Trade Commission has information for children, adults, media, teachers, and businesses on protecting children’s privacy online. It also has information on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.
The NetSmartz Workshop: Keeping Kids and Teens Safer on the Internet from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) has online materials that provide a learning experience for children ages 5 to 17, parents, and educators. These fun activities teach children what to watch out for online. There are animated online activities based on grade levels that provide fun and interesting approaches to developing safe-surfing habits on the internet. There are also activity cards and handouts related to the online activities that are designed to be printed out for use offline.
Protecting Kids Online is an Internet safety awareness program presented by law enforcement officers to parents, caregivers, teachers and children about laws, personal responsibilities and safeguards to be taken against online victimization. It is provided free of charge to schools and community-based organizations in Pennsylvania through a grant-funded partnership among the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, Pennsylvania State Police, Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Center for Schools and Communities.
[Posted on November 6, 2006]
