Internet Safety

*I completed the rest of the PLE for the week (surveys...)*

I read the article "I Have a Question" from the 2001 Ensign about using the internet for all the good things it contains and avoiding the bad.

I watched the BYU animated video for kids about how to be safe on the internet. I also watched the PBS videos about how connected to technology high school kids are, the one about child predator fears and how even good kids might make a bad decision, and the one about cyberbullying with the young boy who killed himself. I also explored the ikeep safe website and explored.

From doing these readings and watching the videos, I think I remembered how fatal the internet can be. Because I have used it as a source to access internet or talk to family for so long now, I forgot about all the other things accessible by internet. I also remember how much went on in chats while I was in high school and how much drama online conversations could cause. I also see how technology in the classroom is so very important. Even as a college student today I know how much easier and more appealing it is to do an assignment when it is something I have to use the computer for. To go and look through books or take tests, just doesn't appeal compared to being able to explore and type and manage on a computer like I am comfortable with. And I know that kids today are even more technologically advanced than even me and how important technological knowledge as well as awareness is to their lives and their learning.

For the doing experience, the person I talked to was first of all surprised at how much technology kids just know how to use and how much technology is involved in teaching these days. They were of course already aware of the dangers of technology and the internet. However, their family computer at home is not in a common area where parental supervision is always around and they thought about how important it might be to change that with a 12 year old in their house. Not only did the cyberbulling video surprise me, but it surprised the person I shared it with just as much. They had thought about others hurting their kids through internet access, but they had not thought of it causing their children to hurt themselves.