Internet Safety
Even though technology is an integral part of our everyday lives, it can be hard to keep up with the ever changing digital world our children are growing up in. It is extremely important to stay educated about ways to keep our children's experiences in the cyber world safe
This site contains internet safety tips and resources for students, parents and teachers. Please check back frequently for updated information.
- Never give out personal information to strangers.
Personal information includes your...- Name
- Address
- Phone Number
- School
- Parent's or Siblings Names
- Remember that anyone you meet online, and don't know in your real life is a stranger. It doesn't matter how much they tell you about themselves, they are a stranger.
- Never post/send your picture to anyone without your parents permission
- If anything or anyone makes your feel uncomfortable, tell a trusted adult.
- Use Netiquette. Be polite online and don't do anything that hurts anyone else.
- Do not respond to any messages that are mean or make you uncomfortable. Instead, tell a trusted adult.
- Never agree to meet someone you met online or tell them where you are going to be.
- Only share your password with trusted adults. Don't share them with your friends.
- When choosing a screen name or a username, don't include any personal information.
- Invite your parents to surf your favorite sites or play your favorite games with you. Show them how responsible you are and how much fun you can have online. The more your parents know, the safer you will be!
- Help your kids understand that they should never share their names, schools, ages, phone numbers, or addresses.
- Visit only age-appropriate sites. Check out the site before your kids visit it. Know what features and what content exist and make sure they’re good for your kids.
- Search safely. Use safe search settings for young kids or think about applying filtering software to limit inappropriate exposure.
- Avoid strangers. Tell your kids that people aren’t always who they say they are in cyberspace. Explain that if someone they don’t know talks to them, they shouldn’t respond but should let you know.
- Be a good cyber citizen! Remind kids that an Internet playground is still a playground and they need to play nicely. A good rule of thumb: If they wouldn’t do something in real life, they shouldn’t do it online. Find out how your children can report mean behavior or unkind content on their favorite sites and teach them how to do it.
- Online cheating? It’s still cheating and it’s a no-no — pure and simple.
- Keep the computer in a central place. So you can see what’s going on.
- Establish expectations and limits about the amount of time your children spend online and what they do. Check out our family media agreement for a helpful place to start.
- View your own habits carefully. You are their role models.
- But, mostly, be involved and have fun with them! Keeping kids safe and teaching them how to use digital technology responsibly is all about staying involved. Start by showing interest in the sites they visit and the games they play and your job will be a lot easier when they start exploring these technologies more independently.
- Use the Internet! Don't allow possible problems with internet use stop you from making the most of technology both in your professional and personal life.
- Make sure you are aware of the school's guidelines for internet use for students and teachers.
- Teach your students about Internet Safety, regularly and authentically. Make the most of online resources such as NetSmartz and I-Safe.
- Choose sensible names for your usernames, email addresses, and passwords. Model to your students about how to choose a safe password. A safe password should have at least: 1 capital letter, 1 lower case letter, 1 symbol, and 1 number. Passwords should be 8 characters long.
- Students should be taught about plagiarism, copyright, search engines, citing sources and effective research techniques. These are important areas for teachers and students to know about if they want to use the internet effectively and legally. Provide opportunities for guided searching not open searching. Open searching can be a waste of time for the students.
- It is generally not a good idea to provide "free" time on the computers. Students should only access educational sites from the links on the teacher's webpage, this way you know they are accessing educational sites and a web address cannot be mis-typed, taking the student to an inappropriate page.
- Find out what your students do online when they're outside of your classroom. If you are not sure about the online spaces that your students and are using, take time to explore and find out how the various sites work.
- If students or parents approach you with issues regarding cyber-bullying or safe internet use, it is important to deal with them. Encourage your students to talk to you about any concerns they might be having with their internet use. Cyber-bullying is the least reported of all the bullying. It is important that you are listening.
- Protect your digital reputation: don't put anything online that you wouldn't want your friends, family, colleagues and employers to see!
- Protect your personal social media with privacy settings. Avoid adding students and parents as friends on personal social networks. Note: the exception would be if your account is purely professional. However, do not add children under 13 on social networks with age restrictions.
Great Internet Safety Websites
