Online Safety and Ethics: It’s everyone’s responsibility.

1. Online Safety and Ethics:It’s everyone’s responsibility. A summary of risks on the internet, and how to keep yourself protected.

2. We all need to be aware of the fact that while the internet is a very powerful and useful tool, it should be treated as such, and presented with appropriate guidelines. These guidelines are not to suppress us, but rather to protect us from very real dangers.

3. What’s so risky? Potentially dangerous items found on the internet: • Disturbing images • Threatening messages • Explicit content • Videos, chatrooms, and message boards with sexually explicit themes • Online predators • Cyberbullying • Identity theft

4. What should schools do? • It is a school’s responsibility to set up an Acceptable Use Policy to protect its students from such dangerous material while at school. • It must be taken into account that a school sets up its own internet values and boundary system. This is not meant to threaten or override the fact that each family may set up a different system based on their own values.

5. What should schools do? An important aspect to keep in mind is that as teachers set up boundaries against the risks of the internet, it must be considered that “In a free society, the range of belief systems held dear by families is very broad and the attitudes toward rules, supervision and boundaries are likely to be divergent and varied” (http://www.fno.org/fnojun95.html#Risk) Many people support a parental-consent form of internet protection for students while at schools, which means that strict internet access is enforced, but parents may give consent for their children to access a wider range of internet sites while at school for research purposes.

6. Implementation • Provide appropriate instructional sites, and treat any browsing away from those sites as a violation of rules as you would any other violation. • Teachers are responsible for providing structure to students’ browsing of the internet. • Students are responsible to follow these guidelines as they would follow any other school rules. • Allow students to bring in parental permission for a broader access to internet for research purposes.

7. Cyberbullying • Cyber bullying is just as serious as face-to-face bullying. • It can lead to serious consequences. • Bullying can cause very serious psychiatric damage in its victims, even sometimes leading to suicide. • The term for this is bullycide, a topic explored in a book titled Bullycide: Death at playtime. An exposé of child suicide caused by bullying. By Neil Marr and Tim Field. • Students should immediately inform an adult if they believe themselves a victim of cyberbullying.

8. Online Predators • The vast majority of people who use the Internet do not get into serious trouble and the fact that crimes are being committed online is not a reason to avoid using these services. (http://www.safekids.com/child_safety.htm). • However, there still exist many risks on the internet, and child predators often use the internet as a means to contact and meet victims.

9. Online Predators, cont. • “People online may not be who they seem to be. Because you cannot see or even hear the person, it would be easy for someone to misrepresent him or herself. Thus someone indicating that “she” is a 12-year-old girl could in reality be a 40-year-old man (http://www.safekids.com/child_safety.htm). • If you do choose to meet up face-to-face with someone you met online, be sure to bring a trusted adult along with you.

10. Online Predators, cont. • A good website for students about the danger of chatrooms and emails: http://www.chatdanger.com • Students can find information about the danger of online predators in a forum that is geared toward their age group.

11. What teachers should do • Teachers should teach students to reject images and communication that is frightening. • Teachers should teach students to have a strong sense of personal boundaries. • Teachers should teach students that predators exist. • Teachers should teach students to apply the golden rule to their own communication with others on the internet. • Teachers should teach students to keep their personal information private.

12. What students should do • Students should reject images and communication that is frightening or inappropriate. • Students should set up their own sense of personal boundaries when using the internet. • Students should be aware that online predators exist, and that they are not beyond danger. • Should should apply the golden rule to their own communication with others on the internet. • Students should keep their personal and family information private on the internet.

13. Conclusion • When appropriate boundary systems are in place, the internet can be a fun and useful tool for communication, research, and entertainment. • We’re all responsible for making sure these boundaries are established and followed!

14. Resources: • FNO.org http://www.fno.org/fnojun95.html#Risk) • Bully Online http://www.bullyonline.org/ • Rheingold’s Tomorrow http://www.well.com/user/hlr/tomorrow/tomorrowcensor.html • Child Safety on the Information Highway http://www.safekids.com/child_safety.htm • ChatDanger http://www.chatdanger.com/,