Making the Internet Safer for Students

Resources Abound for Setting Up Internet Safety Programs
By Jennifer Hanson

Internet safety and policing must be an issue schools battle, as the school learns computer technology at the same pace of the students. A task anyone would be weary of leading, educators and parents have decided to educate their students on the importance of online safety . Topics such as web addresses, posting comments into the cyberworld and communicating with unknown people are addressed with safety being the number one priority.

Actions such as law enforcement speaking in a class, and specialized groups being created within the school; students acting as ambassadors for other students are ideas, but I believe more needs to be done. Hudson suggests working with the school staff, such as teachers and librarians, educating them, but I believe that will only help them learn, not the students. Based on experience, I believe students may "tune out" on these presentations and more action needs to take place to prevent mischievous behavior after law enforcement comes to the class or after the senior high school ambassador speaks.

As strange as it sounds, I am a fan of policing inappropriate behavior by censorship. It would be helpful in schools if the IT department could block the use of curse words and/or websites such as Facebook or Myspace. I believe this would be an idea "Project Safe Childhood" Coordinator would also like. As un-American is censorship is, it is protecting students, especialy younger students. Project Safe Childhood work with law enforcement, the schools and parents and believes educating the community is the first step. Unfortunately in this day and age, our students may have an upperhand in technology and a schools' best measure in safety may be to just block it.