Thursday, April 9, 2009

Links to Online Safety

On-line Safety is a concern for everyone. We want to explore the new frontier of technology but not at the cost of personal safety. I've gathered these links for your informational needs. Stay Safe!!

Online Safety Links, Guides and Videos

Websites

http://lmk.girlscouts.org/Online-Safety-Topics/Online-Sexual--Predators/The-Facts.aspx Let Me Know is a program between Girl Scouts of America and Microsoft Windows This user friendly section of the site is specifically designed around the subject of “Online predators”.

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/ResourceServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2954 Keeping Kids Safer on the Internet, from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Safety tips for families whose children use online services.

http://www.mcgruff.org/Advice/online_safety.php The McGruff character, from the National Crime Prevention Council, has long been synonymous with child safety. Parents and educators can explore all the different links to this sites but this one is specifically for online-safety.

http://www.netsmartz.org/ Also from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, this site is family oriented and user friendly. There are sections available for children, teens, parents, educators and law enforcement. I especially like the internet safety pledges, they have adjusted them to make them appropriate for different ages and stages of development.

http://www.wiredsafety.org/ This site is the world’s largest internet safety help and education resource. (from her on-site bibliography )The Executive Director of Wired Safety, Parry Aftab, is a security, privacy and cyberspace lawyer, as well as an author and child advocate. Recently more than 90% of her time is donated to Internet issues involving children and adults, ranging from protecting children from sex crimes online to helping adults avoid identity theft and fraud online. Her main focus is teaching good cybercitizenship, especially to young people. The young children friendly section of Wired Safety is http://www.wiredkids.org/wiredkids_org.html.

Videos and podcasts

http://www.wiredsafety.org/wiredlearning/videos/4P/Privacy.mov Patty Atfab narrates this EXCELLENT Quicktime clip on internet privacy (geared towards parents)

http://www.wiredsafety.org/wiredlearning/videos/index.html Wired Safety has a series of video clips to illustrate and teach about internet safety. The first section 4P’s discusses Predators, Pornography, Privacy and Piracy. Included is a clip “Chrissy’s Story” about a girl who, when she was 13 years old, was approached by a predator via the internet. An introduction to the 4P’s and credits are also included in this section.

The second set of short clips entitled “You never know” illustrates an online conversation from a variety of viewpoints, there are clips where the main character is a boy and a girl. The person they are chatting with includes everyone from brothers to prisoners to a nun monitoring the school computers.

There is also a series produced by High school students about Kacie Renee Woody, the first minor killer by an on-line predator on December 3, 2002. What follows is a heart-wrenching four part article by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette about the abduction and murder of Kacie Renee Woody.

Pamphlets and guides

http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm The Federal Bureau of Investigation offers a parent’s guide to internet safety. This guide was prepared from actual investigations involving child victims, as well as investigations where law enforcement officers posed as children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUyQI0USNSY Google and Common Sense Media have combined forces to talk about internet safety. This is good to show teens but really would be most appropriate for parents.

http://www.wiredsafety.org/parent.html Wired safety Parents information guide. This guide answers questions like: What if I find out my child’s a bully? Is there software I can us to track what my kids are saying and doing? There are also questions and answers about e-spam and pop-ups. This guide also comes in pdf form. From this site you can also navigate to other areas of wiredsafety.com and its affiliated websites and blogs.