Internet News-bytes

The following are brief news-bytes that you might want to include in a school newsletter.

Websites are great places for gaining current information and learning about the world. Be sure your child is not visiting websites that contain sexual content, violence, or that promote hatred. Create family rules about Internet use and make sure you know what kind of information your kids are looking at.

Visit http://www.wiredsafety.org/parent.html or www.bewebaware.ca

These days, children are able to exercise their creativity by making beautiful web pages about themselves and their interests. To keep your child safe from online predators, ensure that they are not posting personal information that can lead strangers to contacting them. Talk to your kids about what they are posting.

Visit http://www.wiredsafety.org/parent.html or www.bewebaware.ca

Email is an amazing tool for communicating with friends and family and for exchanging information for school projects. To keep your child safe from strangers and Internet viruses, make sure they do not respond to or open emails from people they do not know.

Visit http://www.wiredsafety.org/parent.html or www.bewebaware.ca

Just like the phone, Instant Messaging (or MSN) is very popular for communicating with friends and discussing homework and school projects. Just as you would make sure you knew who your child was going out with; make sure you know who your child is talking to on the Internet by reviewing their buddy list with them.

Visit http://www.wiredsafety.org/parent.html or www.bewebaware.ca

Painful rumours, humiliating photos, stinging gossip and other putdowns are causing a lot of emotional stress for teens – especially because so many of them are visiting and posting things on sites such as MySpace.com. What can kids and their parents do? Here are tips from BeSafeOnline.org:

• Children should always tell their parents if they are being bullied or have been upset
• Save all examples of bullying by saving or printing email or MSN histories
• If an email or message if particularly disturbing or breaks the law, call the police.
• Check on your school’s anti-bullying policy and whether it addresses bullying via computers and cell phones.
• If no policy has been developed, encourage staff to look at this issue, if necessary with support from the PAC and school board.

25% of Canadian children and teens have had mean, hateful, and threatening things said to them over the Internet or on their cell phone. Ask your child if they are one of them.

Visit http://www.wiredsafety.org/parent.html

The majority of children report that they are at home, but not supervised when using the net. Help keep your children safe by monitoring their online activities and keeping the computer in a public area of your home.

Visit http://www.wiredsafety.org/parent.html

YouTube is a public website that is excellent for sharing video clips of fun times with friends and family. These video clips can be easily created through cell phone or digital cameras. Be aware of what your child is putting (“posting”) on YouTube to make sure they are not posting anything violent, too personal or private, or hurtful to others. Ask your children about what they are watching and posting on YouTube.

Cell phones can help you to know where your child is and to make sure they are safe when they are not at home. Not only can your child use the phone for making phone calls to others, but they can also use it to send short text messages (kind of like a little note) to others. Sometimes messages sent or received can be mean or hurtful. Keep your child safe by talking to them about who is text messaging them and what kind of messages they are sending out.

The Internet and other modern technologies are amazing tools for our work, school, and general communication with others. Unfortunately, some children are using the Internet to send mean, hurtful, embarrassing, and threatening messages, pictures, and videos about others. Just as this behaviour is inappropriate and potentially illegal in person, it is also inappropriate and potentially illegal online. Talk to your children about how you expect them to behave online and ask them to tell you or another trusted adult if they are receiving mean or threatening messages over the Internet.