PTA Meeting 11/17/2010!Edward J. Hallisey !Michael R. Hanna!

!   Research shows that risks may not always be obvious!

!   Personal Safety!

!   Identity Theft!

!   Financial !

!  Harassment!

!  Misunderstandings!

•  In our online life we need passwords for many different things.!

•  Some screen names reveal too much information.!

•  Your students can follow a few simple guidelines to create very secure passwords that are extremely difficult to crack but are not too difficult to remember:!

•  Always use a mix of letters and numbers.!

•  Use a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters. Most passwords are case-sensitive.!

•  Use characters that are not letters or numbers such as = ! $ #. Some websites won’t allow punctuation to be used in the creation of passwords. You will have to experiment to find out what non-letter, non-number characters are allowed.!

•  Tell your students never to give their passwords to others, not even best friends.!

•  Tell them to pay attention to who’s watching them as they enter their password. Another students may be looking over their shoulder.!

•  Remind them to always properly log out of their online accounts. This means don’t just close a window when done. Quit the application and log off the computer.!

•  Any software that covertly gathers users information through the user’s Internet connection without his or her knowledge. !

•  Typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs. !

•  Monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information to someone else. !

•  Can also gather information about e-mail addresses, and even passwords and credit card members.!

•  It is possible to be infected with spyware through IM downloads, cell phone downloads, and e-mail attachments. !

•  Anywhere students find ‘free’ entertainment or free offers, they should suspect that spyware is lurking nearby.!

•  Students are often tricked into downloading and installing spyware through free products, services or applications.!

The reason students steal identities are typically one of the following:!

•  To harass, embarrass, humiliate, or hurt another student.!

•  To steal money from the student’s online banking or credit card accounts, of those of the student’s parents.!

•  To access other valuable accounts online, such as eBay, clubs, online gaming, etc.!

•  Scammers often entice students to give up their personal information by offering “free” stuff. The “free” iPod scam is common.!

•  Remind your students: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!!

•  Phishing occurs when criminals trick you into visiting fake websites designed to look like just like the real ones. !

•  Visitors then enter such personal information as account user name, password, credit card number, and Social Security number, which are sent right to the criminals.!

•  Students may be tricked into entering their passwords into phishing sites, such as fake MySpace, Facebook, or banking pages. !

•  They often arrive at such sites by clicking a fake link in an e-mail. Tell students to be very suspicious of e-mails inviting them to log in to an online account. !

•  Even if the website they visit looks absolutely real, the only way to tell for sure is to check the URL in the navigation bar.!

!  MySpace!

!   Facebook!

!   Club Penguin!

!  Webkinz!

!   Omegle!

!   AOL IM / G Chat / iChat!

!   Video Chat!

!   Skype!

!   Chat Roulette!

!   Tiny Chat!

•  The lack of social cues (e.g., tone of voice and expression) from participants can easily lead to misunderstandings about intent. !

•  The feeling of anonymity while using IM, coupled with the often curt and quick exchange of messages, empowers some students to say things they wouldn’t normally say in person.!

•  IM is a poor tool for meeting people for the first time and trying to develop a friendship.!

•  For children up to eighth grade, IM is often the weapon of choice when the intent is to hurt someone’s feelings. Sometimes, students use mean and hurtful language in IM just because they can.!

•  When harassment is brought to their attention you may frequently hear comments like “Everyone talks that way” or “It’s no big deal.”!

•  Increasingly, teens are turning to IM, e-mail, and online social networks to avoid the difficult conversation of life, such as breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, expressing anger over an event, and talking about hurt feelings. !

•  If they continue to rely on the anonymity of a computer by using the computer to avoid confrontation, they’ll delay or altogether avoid building life skills. !

•  IM allows people to hide behind their computer, giving them a fake sense of unaccountability.!

•  In a 2007-2008 survey of student online behavior, we found that 20% of all students in Grades 4 – 12 stated that they had ‘virtual friends’ online whom they had never met in person.!

•  For example, many teens with social networking accounts invite total strangers into their network of friends, giving them complete access to whatever personal information, and images they have posted.!

•  Online, there are no boundaries.!

•  While popular social networks such as MySpace and Facebook require users to be at least 14, we recommend 16 as a better age to start using these sites. Younger teens are not developmentally ready to handle the many issues that arise with social networking.!

•  Social networks are being searched by police, college admissions officers, private high school admissions directors, employers, directors or intern programs, scholarship committees, summer camp directors, the military, athletic associations, and other adults who are trying to evaluate an individual:!

•  Southern Illinois University, in Edwardsville, brought disciplinary charges against a student for creating a Facebook page dedicated to fictitious claims of an intimate relationship with another student.!

•  Iowa Western Community College expelled a student who said on his My Space page that other students “needed to be shot.”!

•  Valdosta State University, in Georgia, expelled a student for posting content on his Facebook account that was interpreted as threatening.!

•  Louisiana State University removed two students from its swim team after they posted disparaging remarks about one of their coaches.!

•  Duke University has denied admission based on content found on a high school student’s MySpace page. (personal communication)!

•  An Abbotsford High School student, in Canada, was expelled for threatening to kick a teacher. The posting appeared on his Facebook page, and he claimed it was a joke.!

•  Thousands of student surveys show that there’s a growing trend for children to migrate from child –oriented social networks to the “real” social networks. !

•  This migration seems to begin in earnest around seventh and eighth grades, but children as young as nine have reported having accounts on Facebook. !

•  This is very disturbing because the teen and adult social networks are not healthy or safe places for children.!

•  Child-oriented sites such as Club Penguin and Webkinz entice children as young as six with fun interactive graphics, games, and the ability to connect to other children.!

•  Infatuated early with the thrill of social networking and connecting with friends online.!

•  Many safety options.!

•  Exposure can encourage children as young as nine or ten to flock to MySpace, Facebook, and other adult-oriented sites.!

•  Most teens will be reluctant to admit feeling scared or uncomfortable online.!

•  Today, the opportunity for teens to be hurt , worried, or made to feel uncomfortable online is very real and very common and can originate from instant messaging, e-mail accounts, social networking sites, chat rooms, gaming environments, and hate or port sites.!

•  They have the power to quit the application or browser or turn off the computer whenever they feel uncomfortable.!

•  Students should also be encouraged to report what happened to a parent or other trusted adult.!

•  Emphasize to students that they are in control and can stop online bullying immediately.!

•  Online bullies are people who try to torment, intimidate, harass or hurtfully coerce others. Their efforts include verbal abuse such as put-downs, name-calling, threats, and the use of harsh language perpetuated over a long period of time.!

•  Almost one-third of all teens online have suffered from some form of bullying. Girls are more likely to be bullied than boys.!

•  One response is that they try to change or redirect the conversation or ask questions of the bully. “Give it right back” is what the bully wants!!

•  Research shows that bullying will often stop when peers and adults in authority get involved.!

•  A perceived relationship with someone online keeps students engaged in conversation, even if the conversations are mean or harassing, or if the person they’re speaking to is just an acquaintance, or even a complete stranger.!

•  Online relationships are not quite like the real thing.!

•  Tell your students to consider whether they should document that someone online is harassing another person. !

•  If someone actually threatens to hurt others, it’s crucial that they document it. !

•  This can be done by either 1) printing out what was said in instant messaging, and e-mail, or in the messages in a chat room or online forum, or 2) copying and saving these documents to a separate file. This record can be very helpful to police as well as parents.!

•  Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. !

•  Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as fo!owers. !

•  Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. !

•  All users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. !

•  While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.!

! TMI: Too Much Information!

•  It is a generally recommended practice for bloggers to disclose some information about themselves. Some personal disclosure allows your audience to have a more closer connection with you when reading your content. !

•  There is of course the problem of disclosing too much information, or all the wrong kind of information about yourself.!

!Hidden Costs!

•  oh sh@#$%@#$%t... jsut checked my tmobile bill: 2,367 extra messages... $236.70 in extra charges!!! does tmobile have unlimited?!?!?!?! about 20 hours ago from web!

•  So before you start Twittering away, keep in mind that every time you do a status update, or publish something new but equally irrelevant on your Twitter feed, if you do it from your cell phone your carrier will charge you for every text message you send. !

•  And unless you have a plan that includes text messages, Twittering can be an expensive hobby.!

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•  When it comes to Internet dominance, few sites rival the growth and reach of the video-sharing site YouTube.!

•  Three years after the site’s December 2005 launch, it remains the go-to source for the latest viral videos, nostalgic clips, and performances from professionals and amateurs around the world. !

•  In December 2008 alone, more than 24 million unique visitors logged onto YouTube and viewed more than four billion videos.!

•  According to a digital ethnography study conducted by a Kansas State University working group led by Professor Michael Wesch, more than 150,000 videos are uploaded to YouTube every day. Many of these videos were created by teens!

•  “There are many, many high school-age fight videos on YouTube,” David Samo wrote in his “Tech Scout” blog on the L.A. Times website April 8, 2008. “Just search ‘school fight’ and order the results by date. Kids of all genders, colors, ages and nationalities are fighting, all over the world. And obviously, there’s often a kid with a cellphone present to record it.”!

•  The Internet, with its speed and permanent memory, doesn't easily forgive; even if these kids manage to avoid jail, the Web will give them no props for this. !

•  The video and their mug shots are everywhere, and this thing will stay attached to their names in Google for decades.!

•  Even parents who are confident that YouTube won’t prompt their children to turn to lives of crime may want to take a closer look at the site before allowing their kids to upload videos.  !

•  The good news is that with consistent smart parenting, a young person’s YouTube use can be a positive experience.!

•  Taking the following steps can help you make sure that your children aren’t putting themselves at risk when they use YouTube:!

• ! 1. !Visit the site yourself. Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can access YouTube for free, so take a few moments to tour the site to see what all the fuss is about. !

•  Visiting the site will dispel any “fear of the unknown” that you may be experiencing, and will also allow you to speak intelligently about the topic when you are talking to your children.!

• ! 2. !Monitor your kids’ YouTube use. Depending upon their age and trustworthiness, your children shouldn’t be doing much online without your knowledge and approval. !

•  Limiting their screen time, putting the computer in a highly visible location in your house, and checking their browsing histories can help you monitor and control the sites they are seeing. !

•  Talk to your children about what they’re doing online, express any concerns you have, and work with them to establish computer rules that the whole family can live with.!

• ! 3. !Teach your children how to stay safe online. Review any videos or photos before they post them online, and make sure that they don’t contain identifying information such as license plate numbers, your address, or the name or location of their school. !

•  Make sure that the files aren’t geo-tagged (embedded with information that can place them on a map), and be sure that they haven’t tagged the photos with names, locations, or other identifiers. !

•  And of course make sure that they know to never arrange an in-person meeting with someone they’ve corresponded with online.!

• ! 4. !Disable comments on your children’s videos. YouTube is an easy way to share videos with friends and family members around the world. !

•  To eliminate unwanted commentary from anonymous malcontents, just select “disable comments” when uploading your video.!

• !! 5. !Report offensive content. Every YouTube video is displayed over a series of links, one of which is “Flag.” !

•  Click this link to report any video with content that you believe is inappropriate or in violation of the site’s community guidelines.!

•  The online activities of teens and adolescents are likely to be continually “challenging” to the parents who are trying to keep them safe. But by maintaining a practice of open and honest communication with your children, you will retain a positive presence in their lives, and will be able to address small problems before they become major crises.!

!   Safe Eyes!

!   Random History Checks!

!   Cyber Ethics & Cyber Morality!

!   Trust!

•  Students must understand that whatever they’re doing online, others are trying to manipulate their thinking and behavior.!

•  As students become greater consumers of media, their media literacy is increasingly valuable to their education. !

•  Remind students that:!

•  All media, including Internet content, are constructed to have a specific influence on them.!

•  Media messages can influence beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors.!

•  The creators of media have a particular purpose or agenda for the messages they create.!

•  Anyone can publish anything on the Internet. No expertise or credentials are required. Neither is truthfulness. So how can students judge online content?!

•  Every Internet website is located by its Internet address, and the final part of the address is known as a top-level domain. For example, .com, .edu, or .gov. !

•  The domain can sometimes say something important about the source of the information.!

•  YOU ARE THE KEY TO INTERNET SAFETY!

•  Home computers!

•  Laptops!

•  Cellphones!

•  Safe Practices for Life Online: A Guide for Middle and High School by Doug Fodeman & Marje Monroe!