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The PBS Frontline segment entitled
"Growing Up Online" is an excellent piece on the impact of technology on today's youth.
Click here to watch.
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North Bellmore U.F.S.D.
INTERNET SAFETY
Gary Pardo, Director of Technology
March 15, 2006
Dear Parents,
Locally, and nationwide, there have
been many troubling incidents reported in the media regarding students’ use
of the Internet. Primarily,
these occurrences happen at home, after school hours, when children have access
to Web sites that are normally blocked in a school. With this in mind, and in
response to the many concerned parents who have contacted me regarding Internet
safety, I have written this letter; because, as the adage states, it’s
better to be safe than sorry. It is my hope that this letter will encourage
parents to take an interest in their children’s online behavior in an
effort to safeguard their children from cyber bullying and any contact by online
strangers and predators.
It is certainly difficult to keep up
with the ways that our children are using new and ever-changing technologies. Our
children are immersed in a society that has become dependant on powerful
computers, including cell phones, ipods, gaming stations and other portable
wireless high-tech devices. Children as young as elementary students have
become very savvy in the use of technology and therefore, it should come
as no surprise that the Internet has now become a favored forum for socializing
and is now the preferred method of communication among children and teens. Students
communicate with each other on the Web through email, instant messaging services,
such as AIM, and through blogs, which are online journals that people can
read and respond to. The district restricts access to these Web sites in school
and we recommend that parents limit and monitor their young children’s
Internet access at home with their safety foremost in mind. The district
encourages parents to learn more about Internet safety and to play an active
role in discussing this issue with their children. Below, I have attached
a list of helpful online resources and safety tips that experts and law enforcement
officials recommend.
In particular, it has come to our attention
that online meeting forums such as www.myspace.com have become extremely
popular among High School students nationwide; and, it is not uncommon to
find underage children registered at the Web site even though the company
attempts to purge these accounts. These types of sites are very much like
online diaries, where students may post personal information about themselves
including their name, age and photograph, their likes, dislikes, interests
and friends. Interestingly, students would not share this information with
a stranger on the street but somehow feel comfortable when sharing it on
the Web, for everyone to see. The site provides links
where visitors can access a person’s screen name (used for instant messaging)
and e-mail address, or subscribe to the blog and comment on it, thereby providing
a link to direct discussion with your child.
To visit the site, go to www.myspace.com.
You are required to register (for free) in order to view the site fully.
You might find it useful to visit this site and to caution your child about
posting personal information online on blogs, profiles and even away messages.
Through lessons provided by classroom teachers, and the Technology and Prevention
programs, we do our best to provide our students with the awareness and knowledge
they need in order to recognize and avoid dangerous, destructive, or unlawful
behavior and to respond appropriately. However, it is only through a collaborative
effort between parents and teachers that we will succeed in creating responsible
and safe cyber citizens.
We hope this information is useful to you
and that it encourages a conversation with your children. If you have any questions
feel free to contact me at 516-992-3030 or you may
through
email. Please make every effort to attend Internet safety presentations
provided by the district. These presentations will be advertised through
postings on our Web site and flyers that will be sent home with students.
Sincerely,
Gary Pardo
Director of Technology
Safe Web Exploration and Internet Safety @ Home
North Bellmore Technology Program
The Internet is like a new exciting city awaiting exploration.
There is a tremendous potential to access information that creates an exceptional
learning opportunity for children, but, as with any trip in the real world,
children need chaperones to guide and supervise the activity of exploration.
Parents should realize that no child is immune from online problems; so, please
do not become indifferent to your child’s online activities. For young
children especially, Internet use should be a family activity not a private
activity. As parents, you have authority over online activities; don’t
relinquish it.
1. Tips for Creating an Environment in Which
Children May Interact Online in a Safe, Educational, and Entertaining Context.
- Place computer in a shared “family” room
- Prevent accessing/viewing of inappropriate sites, if possible.
- Actively supervise and monitor your child’s
Internet usage (e.g., sites that have been visited).
- Respect your child's privacy but make certain they know personally everyone on their email "buddy" list. Work to generate parent and child trust that supports open and honest Internet use.
- Have a dialog regarding Internet safety with your child, including guidelines,
your expectations of its use and the negative aspects of using the Internet
- Teach responsible usage by setting clear, reasonable rules and consequences
for breaking them.
- Encourage your child to come to you if they encounter a problem or if anyone
online makes them feel uncomfortable.
- It can be a fun journey to explore the Internet as a family. Computer-savvy kids can certainly teach you a thing or two...take advantage of this!
- Speak with other parents, teachers, librarians and other professionals
- Contact the police if you child receives sexually explicit images or pornography
from another person or is sexually solicited by an adult.
2. Kids' Rules for Online Safety:
- I will never give out any personal or identifying information while online, e.g., name, age, gender, address, telephone number, parents' work address/telephone number, social security number, passwords, credit card information, or the name and location of my school without my parents' permission.
- I will never share my password with anyone else other than my parents (even my best friends!).
- I will not respond to mean or inappropriate messages. It is not my fault if I receive a message like that. If I do see anything that makes me feel uncomfortable I will inform my parents right away.
- I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.
- I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.
- I will check with parents before downloading or installing software or doing anything that could possibly hurt our computer or jeopardize my families privacy.
- I will be a good citizen and not do anything that hurts other people or is against the law.
- I will help my parents understand how to have fun and learn things online and teach them things about the Internet, computers and other technology.
3. Cyber Bullying:
Using many of these high tech devices, bullying has now moved from the schoolyard to cyberspace. Cyber bullying incidents range from insult campaigns, lewd and threatening messages, and the posting of provocative images online. Bullying often follows the victim home after school via cell phones or the computer and therefore, home is, sadly, not the safe haven it used to be. Barraged by emails, IMs, text messages and web postings, bullies chisel away at a person's self-esteem until they are completely humiliated often causing more psychological damage than traditional bullying. Although these incidents happen off school premises, they have a profound affect on the classroom and school environment. An incident of cyber bullying often engenders a climate of fear and intimidation resulting in a classroom where the focus is no longer on learning. Also, the positive classroom climate that teachers create during the year also deteriorates.
Here are some actions to take against online bullies:
- Do NOT respond back; this only empowers the bully to send more.
- Block the senders username
- Instead of blocking usernames, set your messenger to show messages from only people you know. This will result in level of tighter security, preventing anyone not on your buddy list from sending you messages or adding you to their contact list.
- Save and print out messages as evidence.
- Report all transgressions to your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
- Change your screen name
- Change your away message
- Leave the chat room or Web site.
- Speak to a trusted adult. If the bully is a student at your child's school meet with school officials and ask for help in resolving the situation.
- If you feel that your child is in imminent danger contact the police
- Contact the FBI
Remember, too, that you are responsible for your behavior online…
Think before you click Send!
4. Cyber Predators:
The Internet is being used in a number of ways to target and sexually victimize children. A recent study by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), over 12-month period of time, showed that approximately 1 in 5 children age 10-17 who regularly uses the Internet received a sexual solicitation. The best way to reduce the risks on the Internet is to understand the potential dangers, watch for abuses, and immediately report them. If possible save all communication, e.g., IM chats and emails as evidence and report the incidents to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and local law enforcement officials. You can also report these incidents at the NCMED's CyberTipLine at www.cybertipline.com which helps fight against child exploitation on the Internet. We need to make sure that your child never gets to the point in which they read the initials LMIRL during their online communication (i.e., Let's Meet in Real Life). 5. To Obtain Parental Controls:
Visit any of the following sites or
search the Internet using keywords such as “parental control software”, “child filtering software”,
etc. Many parental software programs offer free trial downloads, so spend time
and shop around before you pay. Two programs that can monitor and control AIM
usage are Parent Tools for AIM and SpyArsenal AIM logger. These tools
can be used to silently record Instant Message and chat room conversations,
limit online time to a certain number of hours per day, create an online schedule
to limit times per day online, and disable various features built into the
AIM software. Wiredsafety.org recommends Spectorsoft, which can be found at software4parents.com This software application will record conversations and e-mail you reports at work.
Common Filtering Software for Home Users:
For Further Information Regarding Internet Safety:
6. E-Mail, Instant Messaging, Profiles and Personal
Web Sites
-
Junk mail is as much a problem in cyberspace as it is
in the U.S. Postal service. Also known as Spam, junk mail may contain links
to inappropriate sites and may be the vehicle in which a virus is delivered. If the
identity of the sender is unknown, the mail should simply be deleted, not
even opened! Opening an email can generate an automatic response to the sender
that the recipients address is valid. Opening the email may also be enough
to infect your computer, although more commonly the infection is spread by
actually clicking on an attachment. E-mail responses should never
be made to an unknown address.
-
Never have a child enter personal information into their
Internet Service Provider (e.g., AOL) “Profile”, and personal
web pages that they have created and posted. Many predators search these
profiles for potential victims. This is analogous to walking up to a stranger
on the street and giving them all of your personal information.
7. Two Methods of Checking Visited Web Sites
The Browser's History
Check your Internet Explorer (IE) browser options and configure the ‘History’ settings
so that visits are logged for later viewing. In the IE menu above go to: Tools....Internet
Options...History under the ‘General’ tab. Then at any time in
the future, click on the ‘History’ button in the IE menu to view
the log. Other browsers (Netscape, AOL…) also have the capability to
maintain and view sites recently visited.
Cookies
A “cookie” is a file that is
created each time a Web site is visited; the “cookie” will be stored
in the computer’s hard drive,
unless it is deleted. The cookie might contain information like credit card
numbers, or your home address, so that you do not need to re-type the information
every time you visit the site. However, its main purpose is to offer some identification
to the Web site being visited. Cookies can sometimes show where someone has
been on the Internet, so by viewing all the cookies, a parent can see what
sites their child has visited. To find the cookies....do a computer search
for the ‘Cookies’ files and folders. On a PC (not a Mac) they are
usually found on the ‘C’ Drive under ‘Documents and Settings’.
8. Protect your PC from Viruses,
and Malicious Spyware and Adware
It is imperative that you protect your computer with virus software that is
configured to download updates on a daily basis. Here are some antivirus programs
to choose from:
Spyware and adware are small programs that are automatically installed on
your computer without the knowledge of the user. These programs generate pop-up
ads, and slow down the overall performance of the machine. A brand new computer
can be slowed to a crawl due to adware and spyware. There are many free downloads
to protect against malicious spyware and adware and some offer more comprehensive
versions of their programs with paid subscriptions. Here are three more commonly
used:
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