Internet Safety: Working to Ensure a Safe Online Experience for Our Children

On Monday, October 17th, Internet Safety Specialist Tom Grimes spoke with students in both high schools and held an evening session for parents and community members at Felix Festa Middle School.  In summary, his message was that parents need to be aware of what their children are doing on line, and that students need to be on guard for the very real dangers that exist online.  These dangers include bullying, cyberstalking, sexting, and more.  

None of this is really new, but Mr. Grimes' focus on establishing good relationships and the decisions students must make when posting were refreshing and student centered. There are a variety of sites as resources for parents and educators, including resources from the FBI, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children®, Larry Magid’s Online Slideshare Presentation, and Parry Aftab’s site, http://www.wiredsafety.org/.  

While these resources can provide valuable information to parents and serve as conversation starters between parents and children, ultimately it’s the decisions a child/teenager chooses to make that impacts his/her experiences in the online community.

While a parent’s initial reaction to learning about the various threats on the Internet may be to ban its use at home, the reality is that the Internet and social networks are available to our children on Gameboys, XBoxes, cellphones, and Smartphones, as well as on computers in schools, libraries and in the homes of friends and families.  Educating our children how to use these tools responsibly and, as Mr. Grimes stated, focusing on interpersonal relations and positive vs. negative behavior is more important than the technologies that are being used.

In the Clarkstown Central School District, our library media specialists are responsible for providing formal instruction in Internet safety, digital citizenship, and digital literacy.  This begins in our elementary schools and is a formal part of the curriculum.  Students use a variety of tools including Schoology, an online social/learning network that allows them to interact as they might on a commercial social network, but within the walled garden of our district’s network.  This is an area in which our students can make mistakes and learn from them based on feedback from other students and from the library media specialists and teachers with whom they interact.

The Internet provides our students with a wealth of resources and opportunities for collaboration.  Encouraging the purposeful use of these technologies is a responsibility for our schools, our community, and--most importantly--for our students to master as they are challenged with an increasing number of opportunities to create a positive or negative online persona.  Giving our students opportunities to grow and succeed using these digital tools is an important part of their learning experiences and one which will benefit them for a lifetime.