Online Safety

This week’s topic was Internet Safety. I chose to concentrate on a popular topic these days, Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying has most recently been in the news because of the case of Pheobe Prince in Massachusetts. There have been many articles such as “Sticks and Stones” in Time Magazine in the media about online bullying and the need for parents to be more informed.

I compiled a list of resources for parents; websites, articles, and multimedia. Parents need to be educated on what cyber bullying is, how they can help their children cope and prevent it and how they can become more informed about their children’s online presence.


Websites
Wired Safety

The site claims to be the world’s largest online safety and help group; it is headed by Parry Aftab, author of The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace. The website provides education, resources and even one on one assistance to victims of cyber crimes and harassment.

Netsmartz
This comprehensive site contains tips for parents as well presentations. There is a lot of information including statistics, news and definitions. The “Real Life stories” really brought the topic home.

Education.com

A site that is dedicated to providing parents with quality information they need. It has an excellent resource list which is divided into a number of topics with questions on each. The links provide easily understood tips and a link to the article where the information originated from.

Articles

“Tips to help when your child is being bullied online” by Christine Loftus

Explains what cyber bullying is and provides 6 tips to help protect your teen against cyber bullying

“Cyber Bullying Quick Reference Guide for Parents” by Patti Agatston

This article describes how bullying happens and why it is not okay

Also defines Cyber bullying and provides a list of warning signs. Helpful tips for prevention and intervention are included as well

“Parent Guide to Cyber Bullying and Cyber Threats” by The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use

A 14 page article which provides in depth information on cyber bullying. The causes are described as well as the various roles that teenagers take on when they are online.

Parents are encouraged to stay involved and given tips of how to prevent their child from being bullied and what to do if their child is the bully.

Multimedia

Let’s Fight it Together

This heart wrenching video shows what cyber bullying is like first hand. It follows an English boy through his days as he is bullied using many different types of cyber tools. It was striking how technology has made it easy for bullies to follow students anywhere. The site contains resources, teachers guide and lessons.

Cyber bullying Resources

A collection of articles, worksheets, activities, quizzes, family contracts and pod casts to assist with the prevention and addressing of cyber bullying. A informative collection of resources for parents.

Notebook: Cyberbullies by Katie Couric

This segment describes the results of cyber bullying and includes tips for parents on how to help prevent bullying. The most important was to have dialog with your children and to know what they are doing online.

For the presentation I chose to create a Glogster of resources for students to use as a type of web quest to explore the topic of cyber bullying. My idea was to not only use it as a web quest type of activity with a class, but also to put it on the library website. In that way it can be a resource they are able to come back to later for further exploration or when they have specific questions. Several of the sites contain vast amounts of different resources far too much for students to absorb at one glance.