Safety and the Internet: How To Remain Safe Online

(Note: The following reading was adapted from material obtained at the web site, "The Parents' Guide to the Internet" <No longer active>. Another site with good resources for parents who might ask for assistance in understanding how to keep their kids safe while using the Internet is called Stay Safe Online. More information about this site and others is available at the end of this document.)

Introduction

Just as you would not allow your children to wander alone into unknown territory, you also would not want them to use the Internet without guidance and supervision. To help you keep your children safe online, this reading provides an overview of issues in several areas of the Internet popular with children (email, the Web, and chat rooms).

What can you do to keep kids safe? They can:

• Learn About The Internet: You don't need to know everything, but you certainly don't want to be the last to know! Learn about the Internet and read journals and magazines to keep abreast of new developments.
• Get Involved: Spend time online with your children, whether in your room, library or media center. Teachers! Sending your students to the computer lab is not an excuse for a coffee break!
• Stay Informed: Keep yourself informed about the software control tools that can help you keep your children safe on the Internet as well as the increasing types of dangers and risks for children and young people.
• Become An Advocate For Kids: If you see material or practices you do or do not like, the company that created the material. If it's school-related, contact your school media specialist, school district media office or your child's teacher.

Consider the following when it comes to taking steps to protect your children:

• Monitor your children's email accounts or arrange for parents and children to share email accounts, especially when the students are very young
• Talk with your children about the people they are meeting online
• Set a rule that your children never arrange an in-person meeting without parental permission and supervision
• Complain to the sender of unsolicited email and to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) about unwanted email.

To assist parents and teachers in this critical area, special software control tools have been developed (see below for more information). These tools, although not perfect by any means, may assist you in protecting your kids.

Risks and Dangers On The Internet

There are several categories of topics that most everyone agrees are completely inappropriate for minors. As you can see, the list is pretty long:

• Sexually Explicit Material
• Sexually-orient or erotic full or partial nudity
• Depictions or images of sexual acts, including aberrant sexual behavior, e.g., bestiality, pedophilia, etc.
• Erotic stories and textual descriptions of sexual acts
• Sexually exploitative or sexual violent text or graphics
• Bondage, fetishes, and genital piercing
• Adult products including sex toys, DVDs and videos
• Adult services, including videoconferencing, escort services, and strip clubs
• Violence
• Sites portraying or describing physical assault against humans, animals or institutions
• Sites advocating or inciting degradation or attack of specified populations based on associations, such as religion, race, nationality, etc.
• Hate Speech
• Holocaust revision/denial sites, depictions of torture, mutilation, gore or horrific death
• Sites advocating suicide or mutilation instructions
• Sites that include "recipes" for making bombs and other harmfully destructive devices
• Sites glorifying satanic cults and rituals
• Sites where coercion or recruitment for membership in a gang or cult are advocated
• Sites depicting obscene gesticulation or excessive use of profanity
• Drugs and alcohol
• Recipes or instructions for manufacturing or growing illegal substances
• Sites glamorizing the use of alcohol, illegal drugs and tobacco
• Sites that encourage minors to consume alcohol or tobacco or to engage in "recreational" drug use
• Sites detailing how to achieve "legal highs," such as glue sniffing, misuse of prescription drugs or abuse of other legal substances
• Sites that make available alcohol, illegal drugs or tobacco free or for a charge
• Displaying, selling or detailing use of drug paraphernalia
• Gambling
• Online gambling or lottery web sites that invite the use of real money
• Sites that provide phone numbers, online contacts or advice for placing wagers
• Newsgroups or sites discussing "number running"
• Virtual casinos and offshore gambling ventures
• Sports picks and betting pools

These are not the only inappropriate materials on the World Wide Web for children. You should give serious consideration of what you want to "filter and block" access when your children are on the Internet.

Controlling Access to the Internet              

Each parent or teacher must make their own determination as to what is appropriate for their children. However, there is a general consensus regarding certain type of web sites and that must be "filtered and blocked" so children do not inadvertently gain access to them. A number of different organizations have each created their own level of definitions of what is or is not appropriate for children using the Internet. The following is a compendium of those definitions organized by category.

Category Definitions

1. Violence/Profanity: These would include pictures or text exposing extreme cruelty, physical or emotional acts against an animal or person that are primarily intended to hurt or inflict pain.
2. Obscene words, phrases and profanity are defined as text that uses, but is not limited to, comedian George Carlin's 7 censored words.
3. Partial Nudity: These include pictures exposing the female breast or full exposure of either male or female buttocks. This category would not include swimsuits.
4. Full Nudity: Pictures exposing any or all portions of the human genitalia. (Note: Partial and Full Nudity categories do not include sites containing nudity or partial nudity of a wholesome or non-sexual nature. For example, web sites for publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazines or sites hosted by museums such as the Guggenheim, Louvre or Museum of Modern Art.)
5. Sexual Acts: Pictures or text exposing anyone or anything involved in explicit sexual acts and/or lewd and lascivious behavior, including masturbation, copulation, pedophilia, intimacy involving nude or partially nude people in heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian or homosexual encounters. This category would also include phone sex ads, dating services, adult personal ads, DVDs and videos containing the same type of material. Web sites offering the sale of sexual paraphernalia would also be included in this category.
6. Gross Depictions: Pictures or descriptive text of anyone or anything which are crudely vulgar or grossly deficient in civility or behavior. This would such depictions as maiming, bloody figures, autopsy photos or the indecent depiction of bodily functions.
7. Intolerance: Pictures or text advocating prejudice or discrimination against any race, color, national origin, religion, disability, handicap, gender or sexual orientation. It would also include intolerant jokes or slurs.
8. Satanic or Cult: Satanic material is defined as pictures or text advocating devil worship, an affinity for evil or wickedness. A cult is defined as a closed society, often headed by a single individual, where blind loyalty is demanded, where leaving may be punishable, and in some instances, harm to self or others is advocated. Common elements may include encouragement to join, recruiting promises, and influences that tend to compromise the personal exercise of free will and critical thinking.
9. Drugs/Drug Culture: Pictures or text advocating the illegal use of drugs for entertainment or "recreational purposes." This would include substances used for other than their primary purpose in order to alter the individual's state of mind, such as glue sniffing. This category generally does not include material about the use of illegal drugs when they are legally prescribed for medicinal purposes, e.g., drugs used to treat glaucoma or cancer.
10. Militant/Extremist: Pictures or text advocating extremely aggressive or combative behaviors or advocacy of unlawful political measures. Topics would normally include groups that advocate violence as a means to achieve their goals. It would also include "how to" information on weapons making, ammunition making or the making and/or use of pyrotechnics materials as well as the use of any of these for unlawful purposes.
11. Questionable/Illegal Gambling: Pictures or text advocating materials or activities of a dubious nature that may be illegal in any or all jurisdictions, such as illegal business schemes, chain letters, copyright infringement, computer hacking, "phreaking" (using someone's phone likes with permission), and software piracy. It would also include text advocating gambling relating to lotteries, casinos, betting, online sports or financial betting, and "1-900" type phone numbers.
12. Alcohol & Tobacco: Pictures or text advocating the sale, consumption or production of alcoholic beverages or tobacco products, including commercial web sites in which alcohol or tobacco products are the primary focus. Pub and restaurant web sites featuring social or culinary emphasis, where alcohol consumption is incidental, are not included in this category.
13. Banners: Any web site posting "Adult Only" advertising or warning banners should also be avoided.
14. Other Categories

The above categories are intended to only to serve as a guideline based on the types of materials, text and pictures currently on the Internet. Each parent and teacher must make his or her own determination of what is or is not appropriate. There may well be other categories you will want to add. Some parents, for example, may not have a problem with web sites depicting sex education for young people. Other parents may feel it to be totally inappropriate. Even those parents who have no objection to sex education may qualify that approval based on the age of the child, e.g., what is considered appropriate for a teenager may be completely inappropriate for a 7-year old.

Software Tools for Filtering and Blocking

Special software has been developed which can block access to certain kinds of Internet materials. One approach to this task might be to specify individual inappropriate sites to be blocked. The problem with the individual site approach is that it is too labor-intensive--a system administrator would have to personally visit or enter the URL of each site to which they want to block access. There are literally hundreds of thousands of objectionable sites, so you can see the limitations of this procedure. A better approach is to categorize sites using the definitions discussed above. The category approach allows a teacher to specify whole sets or types of web sites to be blocked. Usually, the filters (special sets of exclusion rules) used by these software programs come per-programmed, although some allow customization.

While it is obvious that the category approach is much more functional, it relies on each web site developer to accurately categorize the material contained on their site. In general, it is probably safe in assuming that most developers of objectionable sites want access to minors to be blocked--to avoid controversy, lawsuits, etc. However, that may not always be true--pedophiles, some political extremists, and others might want to lure children to their sites. So while the software mentioned below do a pretty good job of blocking access, they do not replace common sense supervision.

Not So Fast, Some Say!

Common Sense Safety Rules   

You may want to print out the following and post it near your computer(s). Review these rules with your children or students and make sure they understand the rules.    

1. I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parent's work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parent's permission.
2. I will tell an adult right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.
3. I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.
4. I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.
5. I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do, I will tell my parents right away so that they can contact the online service.
6. I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online, time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.

Other Sources of Information about Internet Safety

How to Secure Your Digital Life: As digital records, accounts and passwords become more integrated into daily life, they come with a heightened risk of data breaches. What has changed recently and how can you protect yourself and your students? This articles discusses many tactics you can use to stay safe and has links to many other resources of interest.

Stay Safe Online: Sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance, Stay Safe Online works to educate the public on the importance of protecting their personal computers from online intruders. If proper security procedures are not implemented, computers can become victims to viruses, denial of service attacks, Trojan horse programs, and other malicious activities that take advantage of computer vulnerabilities and result in billions of dollars of damage. Designed to provide information needed to protect home and small business computers, this Web site provides the top ten security tips on how to safeguard computer systems, such as using anti-virus software, not opening e-mail from unknown sources, and backing up computer data. The site also contains a self-guided cyber security test, educational materials, and links to other Internet security sources. In all, this is an important resource for all computer users to explore.

How Parents and Educators Can Protect Children’s Online Privacy: This resource begins with discussing the potential risks that children face in this digital age such as exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, data collection, etc. The article includes a section on ways to talk about online privacy with children and is broken down by various age groups with examples of how to approach the topic. It discusses how to make children feel like they aren't being restricted by empowering them and some steps to take to protect a child's online privacy. The resource concludes by covering helpful terminology with online safety, information on privacy laws, and links to trusted external online privacy resources.

Top Cybersecurity Resources for Students and Professionals: This site features links to websites and blogs on how to safe online and protect personal and professional information. The guide also includes current cybersecurity and tech podcasts to help stay up-to-date on current trends and safety tips.

MediaSmarts: Teacher Resources: MediaSmarts is a Canadian not-for-profit that focuses its efforts on digital and media literacy, hoping to help "children and youth have the critical thinking skills to engage with media as active and informed digital citizens." The Teacher Resources section is packed with lesson plans, activities, and other resources for teachers who would like to help their students understand digital technology in healthy and balanced ways.

Internet Privacy & Security: How to Protect Your Digital Privacy: Most of us spend our lives online for work and play. However, spending so much time online puts us at risk of internet privacy issues. It’s essential to know all you can about how to protect personal information online.

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