Internet Safety
The
move to distance learning has thrown students into online learning environments
without the time to ensure their safety on the internet. It’s one of the online
class and a particularly important one to solve. While students now might be
digital natives, there is still a need to help them navigate the online world
safely.
Discussing
the possible dangers of the digital world equips students with the knowledge
that there are things to avoid online. It also sets a tone to ensure a student knows
how to choose safe browsing to avoid falling prey to malicious content whether
they are on school-owned devices or their own.
How
to establish internet safety for students
If a student needs to take their device home, IT
administrators and teachers need to consider effective and holistic ways to
ensure that students are set up for safe, secure browsing.
The best strategy to ensure students are unable to
access harmful content online is two-fold:
1.
Teaching appropriate behaviour so that
the student takes advantage of the pros of the internet, and knows how to avoid
the cons, and
2.
Setting up the device with the right software so
students are safe on the internet.
Teaching
the basics of student internet safety
Including internet safety within a lesson plan can
ensure that students are getting the right information for secure and safe
browsing. This can be through classes centred around safety or simply takeaways
about internet safety in other lessons.
Communication behind the keyboard
To guide them away from keyboard warriors,
cyberbullying, and unsuitable tones and interactions, students should
understand that verbal communication and cyber-communication (especially in
text-form) are different.
It’s important to explain that if they wouldn’t say
something to someone’s face, they shouldn’t say it online. Instilling
appropriate cyber-communication skills can help to protect them from
unnecessary ugly arguments or conflict with others online.
Personal particulars are private
Ensuring a student remains safe from malicious
entities also means protecting their information. Explaining to students why keeping
information (including personal data, passwords, addresses and phone numbers)
private is so important will help them appreciate the importance of how to
keep their information private.
The Why and the How are
equally important in ensuring internet safety for students. Helping students
develop a positive attitude towards lifelong learning can greatly contribute to
safe behaviour online.
If they understand the reason behind why they
shouldn’t share their passwords (with their friends to help in a game, for
example) they will more likely hold their information with care in the future.
Ponder on it before publishing
A golden rule to teach a student: Pause and
consider before hitting that enticing “post” button. There are important
questions students should ask themselves before posting something online to
avoid unnecessary damage or conflict:
·
How will this be received?
·
Is this what I mean to say?
·
Would I be happy to say this in public?
·
Will I regret this after publishing?
·
Would I be happy for my parents or
guardian to see what I wrote?
This quick-fire checklist is also helpful to teach
a student that the fewer negative online footprints they leave, the better.
Helping keep the internet safe for
everyone
Showing students how to flag any inappropriate
content can go a long way in ensuring the overall safety of their time online.
It’s easy to learn how to use the reporting or flagging features, but without
the knowledge of it, the opportunity is lost.
This could be for online resources, social media
platforms and other applications with ads or external content.
This also helps to teach that malicious content
does exist, but there is a way to help keep the online space as safe and fun as
possible.
The
final barrier of safety
Despite a student’s best efforts to practice safe
internet browsing, unfortunately inappropriate content is ever-present.
To ensure that there’s a safeguard in place against
children seeing the wrong thing online, web filtering is designed to protect
against inappropriate content.
KV MRN MATHURA
