Author: Information Systems

April 10, 2010

FOCUS: ONLINE SAFETY

Smedley Middle School

Special points of interest:
Online Safety Risks
Prevention and Intervention Programs
Website
Resources

Inside this issue:

I-Safe Inc.	2
How to Keep our Kids Safe on the Web	2
The Growing Wealth of / Resources / sources on the Internet	2

Online Safety Comes to Smedley

This month’s focus is Online Safety.
Our guidance program has set up a student forum where guest speaker, Tom Fransek, will educate the students on online risks and how to surf the internet safely. This will take place on Thursday, April 22.
The guidance program will implement weekly guidance lessons throughout the month of April for each grade level about online safety. Students will also gain access to online safety workshops and real-life examples of risks on the web.
There is also a parent workshop scheduled on Tuesday, April 27 at 7pm. I will conduct a question and answer session with parents to provide them with online safety tips and how to monitor their child’s behavior.

Youth Advisory Board Reaches Out!

Smedley’s Youth Advisory Board is taking steps to plan a mentor program for our neighborhood elementary school, Yoshi Elementary on each of our month’s focus topics.
The YAB is currently developing a power point presentation, design board, and hiring a mascot named “Clicky” to teach Yoshi’s young children about online safety.

FOCUS: ONLINE SAFETY

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I-Safe Inc.

I-Safe Inc. is a website resource that Smedley has subscribed to.
The website provides Smedley with guidance curriculums and has online safety workshops for the children to access in school.
I-Safe also has an I-Mentor Program offered through their site that the children can sign up for where they can plan their own workshops and travel around to other schools to teach other children about safe internet surfing.
I-Safe has youth-friendly resources, such as their “411” section that reaches out to students and provides them with online tips in a way that they can understand.
There is also a parent section on the website. It provides tips and methods on how to monitor their child’s online behavior. It also gives parents advice on what to look out for and how to approach their children if they feel that they are at risk.

“Even though they are teenagers, they don’t know everything. They still need your guidance!”

How to Keep our Kids Safe on the Web

As parents you can help keep your children safe on the internet.
Parents can set up Parental Controls on their child’s computer and cell phone. With the computer parents can set up controls to limit the amount of time their child is on the internet and the content that they surf. On the cell phone they can limit their child’s text message quota and disallow them to use it after a certain time at night.
In addition to Parental Controls, parents can write up a safety contract with their children stating the rules and regulations of the household regarding their online behavior. Parents can have their children sign the contract and stipulate the consequences if they violate the contract.
Even though they are teenagers, they don’t know everything. They still need your guidance!

The Growing Wealth of Resources on the Internet

While the internet can be dangerous if used in an inappropriate manner, it has its positive aspects as well.
Students can interact with friends through chat rooms and discussion boards to work on group projects and access important educational information.
The internet in particular offers website resources in particular to combat cyber issues, such as cyber bullying, cyber solicitation, plagiarism, etc. Some recommended websites are:
http://www.ikeepsafe.org/
http://www.getnetwise.org/
http://www.getnetwise.org/
http://www.isafe.org/
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Working to
create a better
tomorrow!

Success goes hand in hand.