Safety on the Internet
How to Use the Internet
Internet Tips
Being online offers wonderful opportunities for learning and connecting with others around the world but it also requires that children (and adults!) know how to keep from being targets of crime and exploitation. Just as we wouldn’t send our children out into the world without supervision and rules about safety, we need to ensure that they are also supervised and educated about safety online.
Following are some web sites and articles that help teach Internet safety. Parents should preview these beforehand and choose whichever site(s) they feel will best meet their children’s needs. Make sure you read the parent guides at each site.
Be Web Aware
http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/default.aspx
Be Web Aware is a Canadian, bilingual public education program on Internet safety. The objective of everyone involved in this project is to ensure young Canadians benefit from the Internet, while being safe and responsible in their online activities.
Cyberproofing 101
http://www.geocities.com/rod_oickle/safeparents.html
Provides links to deal with issues of Internet use including bullying and chatrooms and provides ideas and advice on how to use the Internet safely and avoid unwanted situations. This is a site for parents.
Disney Surf Swell Island
http://disney.go.com/surfswell/index.html
Surf Swell Island is a place on the Internet where kids and parents can learn about Internet safety. The Surf Swell Island site is a quiz-driven adventure game. Internet safety material is presented in a series of three games, each featuring a classic Disney character and focusing on an area of concern: privacy, viruses, or netiquette (guidelines for behaviour on the Internet). A mini-quiz follows each of the three games, reinforcing what was presented.
HDOP: Help Delete Online Predators
http://www.missingkids.com/adcouncil/pdf/lingo/onlinelingo.pdf
This informative resource for parents from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contains up-to-date listings of the acronyms commonly used by kids who use Instant Messenger (IM) and spend time in chat rooms. It also includes information on how to talk to your kids about using the Internet, some not so pleasant online stories, an Internet safety quiz for adults, and a quiz for kids. Unless you are a regular chat participant, it's guaranteed you'll learn something here! TTYL!
NEW! Internet Slang Dictionary
www.noslang.com
If you see things that you don't understand in your child's email messages, you might want to investigate. More and more people (mostly teenagers) are using abbreviations online or in text messages. They also use a 'language' called leet that uses misspellings and replaces letters with characters and numbers. The Internet Slang Dictionary and Translator makes it easy to figure out what is being said. You can copy and paste text to translate it. Or you can browse the dictionary. Some of the slang at this site can be vulgar. This site is definitely not intended for parents to take their children to but rather one for parents to use to better understand what their children are doing online. Some of the language is shocking but if your kids are using having conversations online, you need to know what they're saying.
NetSmartzKidz
http://netsmartz.org
NetSmartz was created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA).
Safe Kids
http://safekids.com
A family guide to making the Internet and Technology fun, safe and productive.
A Safe Safari @ 2Learn
http://www.2learn.ca/mapset/SafetyNet/safari.html
Here are some good ideas to help you have a "safe safari" on the Internet.
SBC Internet Safety Game
http://www.sbc.com/Common/images/safety/game.html
A simple game for younger students on basic Internet safety. The premise is a town with a nasty character lurking about, sending inappropriate e-mail and such. Students enter eight different buildings and answer a question on Internet safety.
Wired Kids
http://www.wiredkids.org/kids/index.html
WiredKids is designed to teach kids how to surf safely and how to have fun doing it.
Be a Web Explorer @ 2Learn
http://www.2learn.ca/kids2Learn/webtutorial/webtutorial1.html
A tutorial for younger children on how to use the web.
The Help Web - A Guide to Getting Started on the Internet
http://www.imagescape.com/helpweb
This guide is intended to help people who are just getting started on the Internet learn their way around. Think of this site as a friendly service station that gives out free road maps.
The Web at a Glance
http://www.learnthenet.com/english/web/000www.htm
Very quick look at the web.
Tip #1 -
Safe Search Filtering
This tip doesn't have a link. It's just a tip. Google is a search engine used by many people because of its capabilities of often coming up with just what you are looking for. It also often comes up with things that you would really rather not see, especially if you are searching with your young son or daughter.
One thing you can do to help avoid unwanted sites is to set the filter for whatever search engine you are using on your computer. For example, if you use Google, go to http://www.google.ca, and click on Preferences right beside the Search icon. Scroll down to Safe Search Filtering, choose the level of filter you want for your searches, and then make sure you click on Save Preferences. This isn't a guarantee that things you don't want to see won't come up but it will help!
A parent had asked if there was a similar filter option for Yahoo! and there is but when a search is run with the Safe Search Filter on Yahoo!, pretty much the same results came up as with it off. Explore the filter settings on whatever search engine you prefer to use but just remember, while safe search settings can help, there is never any guarantee that all offensive content will have been blocked. Always be aware of what your children are doing when they are on the Internet.
Tip #2 - Need an Image?
You can search for images on the Internet but one fast way of finding an image is to go to Google (or pretty much any other search engine) and click on Images, just above where you write in what you are searching for. Guaranteed that you'll find something you can use! (Just make sure you have your Safe Search Filtering set first!)
Tip #3 - Are your kids exposing you to spyware?
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/kidsspyware1.mspx
Has your computer suddenly started to slow down or are you getting pop-up
windows, even when you're not browsing the Internet? If so, you may be the victim of spyware or other unwanted software. Read this Microsoft article about spyware that contains a link to common signs of spyware and how to remove it.
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