Internet safety

Frontline: Candace Kelsey (teacher):
--Parents are ignorant to believe that they can just tell their kids to get off of MySpace. Social networks are now a big part of being a teen, and teens find other ways to access. Kids should be taught to use these responsibly
--All of frontline really seems to address "talk to your kids about the Internet. They're doing it anyway."

Isafe looks interesting, but I can't really figure out what to click to see the internet safety tips. all I see is, "We're wonderful at telling you internet safety tips." I think you have to log in to see things, and I know I don't like registering for everything just to get some tips.

NSteens.org has some interesting, really accessible videos for teens about internet safety. One talks about how things online can change your job future, what schools you're accepted to, etc.
Other things include cyberbullying, and offline consequences.
I think it's an interesting idea to have safety stuff for teens online--because it's teens who are online that need these tips.

On the parents section, it tells some basic tips. I really like the one where it said that if your child has posted personal info online, you can contact the website to try and get it removed. I wouldn't have thought about doing that.

ikeepsafe.com talks about the different things teens need to be careful about: innappropriate material, posting personal info about yourself, and lastly, being disinhibited to saying mean things online. I think parents often know about the first or second problem, but they forget that all three are issues that they need to discuss with teens.

Internet Safety Podcast:
When deciding about giving technology to young people, you have to think a lot: what signals do you send to kids when you give them a cell phone? Are we saying, "If you have trouble, the only people you can trust are your family?" Societal Breakdown?
I think that kids should be able to call their parents for help, but it depends on the situation. I know that a female alone on a road broken down should probably call someone she knows, but in the middle of the day on a safer place, it's probably okay for her to get help from passersby.
I think that there are 2 things about always calling for help: actual safety, and comfort. I think it's okay for people to call for help, even if it's just that they are scared when, in trouble, they need help.

I think, by and large, the websites talked about a lot of problems, but I didn't really learn much new; it's easier to find people talking about implications of the problems than actual solutions.

Yet, I think part of this is that I've had a lot of internet safety training, and do consider myself safe online. There are many things that I do, such as making sure I don't put weird things online about myself, that I forget not everyone knows about.
I think maybe part of teaching internet safety is refreshing what I take for granted so I don't forget the important things.
I taught my little sister about some important things in internet safety because that's important for her.