internet safety @ home hs pta presentation – 23 november 2006
TRANSCRIPT
Internet Safety @ HomeHS PTA Presentation – 23 November 2006
The Essential Question
How do we the digital immigrants understand, participate in, and
monitor the world of our digital native children to ensure their safety?
Today’s Agenda
Your children are “Digital Natives” - what does that mean?
What are your children doing on the internet?
Is it safe out there? What can you do to keep your child
safe? Questions & (hopefully) Answers
Your children are ‘wired’ differently The Visual cortex in the brain of the
kids today is 15% larger than of kids 10 years ago. They process information differently. They are DIGITAL NATIVES.
Digital Natives
Anyone born after 1985 is a digital native.
Personal computers are already 10 years old.
In Their Lifetimes
1990 - Tim Berners-Lee writes World Wide Web program
1990
1996 - Palm pilots go on the market… computing becomes mobile
1999 - Sean Fanning, creates Napster… suddenly everyone is sharing
2002 - the iPod is unveiled
2006
And now…
1997-2005 has brought us: Blogs Wikis YouTube Social networking
Do you know what these are? Your children do.
Digital Natives
Your children are not us. The average college graduate now
Has spent less than 5,000 hours reading Has spent more than 10,000 hours
playing video games Has spent 20,000 hours watching T.V. E-mail is old-technology to them
How does knowing this impact what we do?
What are your children doing? School work
Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, simulations Research
Socializing MySpace – social networking Sharing files (torrents) – music, videos Meeting people Dating Downloading
Gaming Virtual worlds Passing time Online Gambling
Exploring Interests/Questions Appropriate and inappropriate content
Is it safe out there?
What to look out for: Pornography Online Predators Cyber-bullying Online Gambling
What can you do to keep them safe? Talk with them
Be open about what concerns you and what types of content you don’t want them viewing
Ask them what they do when they are online
Speak to them about what kind of information they and others share online
Establish some rules or guidelines about time and/or what they do
What can you do to keep them safe? Control access
Where is the computer? How much time are they allowed? Can you disconnect them, if necessary?
Stronger Measures
Filter Software “Content Provider” – endorsed by Disney
and reviewed highly by Top Ten reviews: US$40 per year
K9 Web Protection from Blue Coat, supplier to Fortune 500 companies so for homes it’s Free!
Keep in mind that filter software is not perfect
From “Do You Know Where Your Kids are Clicking”, by Alan Cohen, PC Magazine, July 2006.
Some other priorities
The real world is worth participating in too
Remind your children about being a human being – balancing their lives The electronic world can be pretty
consuming Balance requires that they sleep, eat,
exercise and leave their rooms to thrive
And finally…
Remember that soon enough they will be on their own
Work with them to become smart, responsible, safe web participants
EVERYTHING will change even more in the coming years!
Questions?