Vidalia City Schools Parent Academy I

1. Vidalia City SchoolsParent Academy I Internet Safety Internet Safety The Internet: IS IT ALWAYS A SAFE PLACE TO VISIT? Tips for Parents

2. Introduction • Keeping Kids Safe Online (How? & Why?) • Terms you need to know • What Parents Can Do • Resources Tips for Parents

3. Children vs. Adults: Using the Internet in Different Ways Parents Mostly email and research Children Interact Chat, IM, Music, Games Do you know how your child uses the NET? ? Tips for Parents

4. Keeping Kids Safe • 20% of parents do not monitor their children’s use of the Internet at all • Only 52% of parents moderately supervise their children’s Internet use. • An estimated 62% of teens report that their parents know little or nothing about their Web Activities • 71% of all parents stop monitoring their child’s use of the Internet after the child turns 14, not knowing that 72% of all Internet-related missing children are 15 years of age of older. Tips for Parents

5. Why is Parental Supervision so important? • Pornography • Pedophiles/Predators • Chat Rooms • Instant Messaging • Cyber Bullying Easy Images False Risk Worm Hacker Theft Drugs SPAM Tips for Parents

6. Parental Supervision cont. • Estimated 1.3 million pornography websites. • 70% of Americas aged 15 to 17 have viewed pornography online. Tips for Parents

7. Parental Supervision cont. • Chat rooms and instant messaging web sites may ask for profiles. A profile is personal information about you. You will also need a login name. • Do not give out personal information to a profile. • Do not use a descriptive name as your login name. A/S/L means age, sex, location. • 87% of all Americans can be identified with very little information. Tips for Parents

8. Chat Rooms • You can chat with strangers. • People lie about their age and other interest. • Determined adults can seek abusive relationships • Contacts shift quickly to messaging, email and mobile phones. Cell Phones – are another way to access the internet, chat/text & cameras. Tips for Parents

9. What’s So Dangerous About Blogging? • The writer tends to share personal information that can put their safety in jeopardy. • Last name, email address and cell phone number • The town in which they live • The name of their school and friends • Where they “hang out” or work • The names of teams or clubs that they belong to Tips for Parents

10. Cyber Bullying Bullying has gone cyber. The internet has become a bully's latest weapon. Some bullies who are savvy internet users are creating web sites that target  other youths. These sites list and make horrible claims about their victim and even the victims families. Similar to school yard bullying, internet bullies tease, taunt, and ridicule the victim. Instead of a group of students witnessing the act however, millions of online users can access and witness such bullying situations. • One Middle School Survey showed: • 1500 students were surveyed and reported that while online: • 52% said hurtful or angry things to another person • 57% had someone say hurtful or angry things to them. • 42% were bullied. • 34% were threatened while online. Tips for Parents

11. Phishing - Warning Signs of Phishing • Phishing – hackers who imitate legitimate companies in e-mails or pop-ups written to entice people to share passwords or credit-card numbers. • Banks do not send out email asking for personal information. If you have an account with the bank they already have all the information they need. • Pop-up asks for personal information. • E-mail prompts for an update of data. • The e-mail provides a link. • E-mail contains spelling and grammar mistakes. Tips for Parents

12. Pharming • Pharmers simply redirect as many users as possible from the legitimate commercial websites they'd intended to visit and lead them to malicious ones. The bogus sites, to which victims are redirected without their knowledge or consent, will likely look the same as a genuine site. But when users enter their login name and password, the information is captured by criminals. Tips for Parents

13. Your Child Might be @ Risk • Your child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially at night. • You find pornography on your child’s computer. • Your child receives phone calls from individuals you don’t know or is making calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don’t recognize. • Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don’t know. • Your child becomes withdrawn from the family. Tips for Parents

14. So What Should You Do Now? 1) NEVER threaten to take away a child’s computer This is a child’s biggest fear and it will close the lines of communication. 2) Restrict Internet use to public areas in your home It helps to keep the computer in a family room not tucked away in a child’s bedroom. Check with Internet Provider about Parent Control and Filters. 3) Get involved in your children’s online activity at home Check that you know what applications they are using, especially chat rooms and games played with others online. Ask who their “e-pals” are. Get them to teach you about how things work. 4) Create your own profile on myspace.com Search for your child’s profile regularly. 5) Communication – Become a part of their online experience. Tips for Parents

15. Where to Get More Information • Use only safe search engines for kids • Yahooligans - http://www.yahooligans.com/ or http://kids.yahoo.com/ • Ask Jeeves for Kids - http://www.ajkids.com/ • SuperSnoop - http://www.supersnooper.com/ • Lycos for Kids - http://www.lycoszone.com/ • KidsClick - http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/ Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet • http://www.netsmartz.org Tips for Parents

16. Leetspeek – Numbers and symbols replace the letters that they resemble. Letters can be substituted for other letters that sound alike. Mistakes are left uncorrected. A parent's primer to computer slang http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/default.mspx Internet Terms – A Glossary (http://www.getnetwise.org/glossary) Chat Slang - http://www.city-net.com/~ched/help/lingo/chatslang.html Chat / IM Information Tips for Parents

17. Questions ? Tips for Parents Sabrina Wiggs – Technology Coordinator

18. Tips for Parents

19. Leet Speak • Grammar or Lack Thereof • As you've already seen, basic l33t is just replacing vowels with numbers: • A = 4 • E = 3 • I = 1 • O = 0 • However l33t is a very flexible 'language' and you can go from this very basic l33t, to ultra 1337 by being creative; a few examples: • O = () • U = |_| • T = 7 • D = |) • W = \/\/ • S = $ • There is no agreed-upon way to write l33t, so it's up to you whether or not to go with light l33t, medium 1337, hard |_337 or even ultra |_33¯|¯. In this entry, 'l33t' is used except when referring to medium, hard or ultra '1337'. Tips for Parents

20. My Space • Did you know that everything you post at MySpace is currently being recorded, and spidered by search engines such as Google? In other words, do you realize that everything you say on your MySpace blog can be easily read by anyone who really wants to find it?" • The smiles began to fade. Another question from me. • "Did you know that right now all human resource professionals not only Google your name when they're checking up on you, but they also use tools to look inside MySpace to see if they can find information about you? You know what you're writing on your profiles, do you think that information is going to help you get a job with that HR person, or hurt you?" • No more smiles. I could see the wheels turning in their heads. "Should I have written about passing out in the kitchen last night after doing 15 Jello shots? Hmm, probably not." • No, probably not. • MySpace is a neat product. But when you really think about it, the demographic that primarily uses it is setting themselves up for a big fall down the road as they grow up and enter the "real world." Think about it. Would you like someone to be able read about all the things you did back in high school and college your parents never knew about? Tips for Parents

21. Tips for Parents