The three main CyberRisks for this age group are:
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Inappropriate Content – This includes both content that is viewed and content that is uploaded by kids. To mitigate this,
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Encourage students to use a 'safe' kid friendly search engine like those posted below
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Help kids understand that the Internet is forever, and everything they post online is tracked and stored and will follow them to future job interviews and college entrance interviews.
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Teach kids how to recognize and protect themselves against contact with cyberbullies, hackers, phishers, and predators. People are not always who they say they are. The Internet is a place to enhance existing relationships, not a place to meet new people.
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Inappropriate Conduct – Because the web environment can feel anonymous, some youth become disinhibited.
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Teach kids that the Internet is a public forum - anonymity is a myth.
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Help them be the good person online that they are when they’re offline.
http://www.ikeepsafe.org/iksc_educators
Safe Search Engines
to view 'appropriate content'
Our students may be sophisticated technology users -- they are digital natives -- but they do not have the skills to do an open search on the web using the adult search engines where they get millions of hits. These evaluative skills need directed instruction.
In lieu of the adult search engines try these -- they are in alphabetical order, not ranking order.
Click and search by keyword or scroll down and chose from the directory. Limited results but great links and all identified by age level. Lots of video sites etc.
"Designed to be a fun destination site focused on learning and 'edu-tainment,' Ask for Kids uses natural-language technology that allows kids to ask questions and perform web searches, such as 'When did Hawaii become a state?' ... in the same way they would ask a parent, friend or teacher. Our service combines human editorial judgment, age-appropriate feature content and filtering technology to enable kids to find both relevant and befitting information on the Web."
This is a directory with a dictionary and encyclopedia search identified separately than the other 10-12 main topics.
Less flexible to use, with lots of scrolling involved, this directory is organized into twelve subject areas: American history, art, computers, current events and newspapers, ... and world history. It is designed to provide students with links to homework help resources. Includes reference resources: almanacs, atlases, calendars, career information, dictionaries, encyclopedias, library and ask-an-expert sites, museums, quotations, and study skills.
Other sections include search engines for children and fun sites (comics, hobbies, games, etc.).
Backed by public librarians, KidsClick lists about 5,000 web sites in various categories.
Nice looking website -- just the look you might create for your school library webpage.
Another great public library directory tool for kids.
Great 'mind map' or 'visual thesaurus' feature. Quintura for Kids is a visual and intuitive search engine for children.
Yahoo for kids designed for ages 7 to 12. Sites are hand-picked to be appropriate for children. Also, unlike normal Yahoo, searches will not bring back matched found by crawling the web, if there is no match from within the Yahooligan listings. This prevents possibly objectionable sites from slipping onto the screen. Additionally, adult-oriented banner advertising will not appear within the service. Yahooligans is the oldest major directory for children, launched in March 1996.
Be Safe -- Purchase a safe search engine for your students
Library software may sell you extra modules so you can search outside the library collection. One is Follett's Destiny product called WebPath. Check with your Teacher Librarian or District Librarian for availability at your site.
Over 150,000 curriculum related, educator selected websites, readability scale, EL access. Now includes HotMath with math solutions for grade 6-12.
Teacher searches can be standards based. Check for deals through your county office consortia.
Websites -
with tips for 'appropriate conduct and contact'
A great resource for helping children and teens learn safe strategies for navigating the increasingly interactive world of the Internet. Contains articles on cyber bullying, social networking, gaming, and more.
The site provides FREE lesson plans and handouts for grades K-1, 2-3, 4-5 and 6-8. The topics per grade level are divided into safety (What's Private?), manners (Netiquette and Whose Property is This?), advertising (Things for Sale, Filling Out a Form - Ask First), research (Ask a Librarian, Using Keywords, Finding Good Sites) and technology (What's the Big Idea). Students learn about pop-up advertising that may appear, that the computer is not theirs but belongs to the school and must be treated properly ...
CyberBulyying packet Sample handout for K-1.
This site is text heavy, but does have some good features. It features a 'choose your own adventure' format for ethical issues. For example the link Are you a good Cybercitizen poses scenarios and when the student clicks on GO s/he has to make a choice -- "What would you do?" If they make the wrong choice the following link shows them how they went wrong. [grade 4+]
This site sells Internet safety curriculum (see below). For the younger ones they currently have three free pdf fliers on these topics:
i-Buddy Times. http://www.isafe.org/ Winter 2005.
Discussion of Netiquette in kid friendly vocabulary. Talks about using acronyms and emoticons.
i-Buddy Times. http://www.isafe.org/ 2008.
Just what is instant messaging? It is a way of communicating online in REAL time. Instant messaging uses software that creates a Buddy List.
i-Buddy Times. http://www.isafe.org/ Spring 2005.
Girls in the Girls Inc. North San Diego County summer program spent 4 weeks learning about Internet safety and creating games and posters to help others learn about it too. Activities.
This page offers educational games K-12 on Internet awareness. Co-Co's AdverSmarts: An Interactive Unit on Food Marketing on the Web (Ages 5-8) Explains how to recognize online marketing techniques used in 'advergames'. Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs (Ages 8-10) Learn about protecting your privacy.
CyberSense and Nonsense: The Second Adventure of the Three CyberPigs (Ages 9-12) About chat rooms and learning to distinguish between fact and fiction and to detect bias and harmful stereotyping in online content.
handouts for after any lesson
McGruff is the host here and has games, animated clips etc. to review topics like bullying and how to handle it. Go to Advice to find the cyberbullying and Internet safety games.
New Zealand website
Good video - At a Distance which shows the school response to a playground incident of name calling. This
escalates into cyberbullying via phone and Internet. A friend helps out the young girl and suggests she tell an adult. Next stop is the principal's office with the 3-4 young kids waiting with fear and trepidation to talk about it.
UYN is the acronym here -- Use Your NetSmartz. The site is designed for the home market but you can access short dance/rap videos which explain the safety rules. With some of the videos you can download the song and/or lyrics. Kids love Clicky from kindergarten to grade 6!!
Short videos include: Don't Open That File: A Lesson in Computer Viruses, Know the Rules!, Be Safer Online, The Password Rap: A Lesson in Internet Privacy, The Boy Who Loved IM: A Lesson in Instant Messaging, UYN: The NetSmartz Chat Abbreviation: A Lesson in Personal Safety, Clicky's Stolen Song: A Lesson in Digital Ethics ...
Federal Trade Commission
This site has games for grades 4+ about being cyber smart [grades 4-6], spyware and peer-to-peer file sharing, phishing scams etc. Game called Friend Finder about social networking for middle school+.
This is a game through which kids learn and practice recognizing danger on the Internet. The game is set in the city of "Safety Land." As students navigate from building to building in Safety Land they are confronted with a series of scenarios and questions to respond to. If they respond correctly to each scenario they will capture the cyber criminal and send him to the Safety Land jail. Students who send the cyber criminal to Safety Land jail receive a certificate that they can print out.
A lot of reading!
Federal government site from Health Resources and Services Administration.
Talks about why kids bully, signs that YOU may be a bully [I haven't seen this in other sites], what to do if you are bullied. There ar short animated 'webisodes' that show how bullying affects others etc. then they are followed yb discussion questions. I liked the response when i gave a potentitlaly 'incorrect' answer: Probably. It sounds as if K.B.'s mom bought her a whole closet of clothes that weren't too stylish. Have you ever had kids make fun of your clothes or the way you looked? Why did they do that? How did it make you feel? Are there any other good answers to this question?
Purchase this curriculum / simulations
This site sells Internet safety curriculum for grades K-8 and the promos are very professional. For the younger ones they currently have three free pdf fliers on these topics:
Web Wise Kids offers fun, challenging and interactive simulations based on real-life criminal cases—MISSING, Mirror Image and Airdogs. Each program has been designed specifically for use with young people in classrooms and computer labs and is 'guaranteed' to be easy to use and flexible with a classroom schedule.
$150.00 for a Missing School Kit: One school kit should accommodate a class of 30 students (10 discs). The game is most beneficial if played by 2-3 students per computer station).
This program is designed for Middle School students - ages 11-14.
Image and Air Dogs - which are appropriate for high school age children.
Netsafe - Cyberbulling
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