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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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Class Demographics

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Since 1998, NCMEC has operated the CyberTipline, a place where the public and electronic service providers can report suspected online and offline child sexual exploitation. The millions of reports made each year uniquely situate NCMEC to identify trends and create prevention resources to address the evolving needs of kids and teens online.

NetSmartz is NCMEC's online safety education program. It provides age-appropriate videos and activities to help teach children be safer online with the goal of helping children to become more aware of potential online risks and empowering them to help prevent victimization by making safer choices on- and offline.

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Since 1998, NCMEC has operated the CyberTipline, a place where the public and electronic service providers can report suspected online and offline child sexual exploitation. The millions of reports made each year uniquely situate NCMEC to identify trends and create prevention resources to address the evolving needs of kids and teens online.

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The lessons taught did not require a lot of differentiation. Much was based on group discussion. When there were parts of the lessons with students working in groups, grouping was heterogenous, with assigned roles

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East Hartford High School school profile, performance trends and CT state ranking. See how East Hartford High School ranks with other East Hartford schools.

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Diigo - Better reading and research with annotation, highlighter, sticky notes, archiving, bookmarking & more.

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Diigo is a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing community

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Does your school teach digital citizenship? Learn what it is and why it matters. Are you celebrating Digital Citizenship Week 2017? Get educator resources, including quick-start activities and student stickers here: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship-week

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Who's Watching? How much info about you can people find online??

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LNdQUCNOeoJr67bqvIydjiainYNMjFWEoxbxQedb-9U/edit?usp=sharing

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In reflecting back on the lessons I taught on Digital Citizenship, and the research I did on  teaching digital citizenship in the schools, I realize that students need reinforcement.  I don;t think they really understand the repercussions are of not having good security and privacy measures online.

By the time they have gotten to high school, they have already developed habits and for most of them, there have not been any problems. In addition, many do not have good role models when it comes to using social media responsibly.  If we start talking about etiquette, responsible use, privacy, copyright issues, etc. as soon as they are in school, we can start instilling good habits and skills.  The more they see social media and technology as a tool as well as a way to socialize and communicate, the more likely they will be better digital citizens.  By prohibiting and restricting, you are almost encouraging the sneaking around and hiding  information .

As a Science teacher, it is not easy to incorporate all aspects of Digital Citizenship into my lessons, as it does not tie in with the curriculum.  However, it is possible to have those "teachable moments" to go offtrack, or take a "commercial break" once in a while to work them in.

I will be advocating for incorporating Digital Citizenship in East Hartford.  I have been talking with our Library Media Specialist about ways to work it into the high school and plan on talking with members of the district technology team.

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Did you learn something that you will use in the future...

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Did you learn something that you will use in the future...

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I will go back and make sure all of my account settings are set to private and will delete some of my social media accounts.   Natasha

I learned about a digital footprint and how it tracks what you do online - and doesn't go away.  Mekayla

I learned that my digital footprint can be looked at by schools and jobs.  Joel

I learned that things I look at on online stores and things I buy become part of my footprint and can be used by others if I am not careful about privacy settings.  Jose

It's important to be aware because you need to know what or how to be safe. ....  I put fake information sometimes so nobody knows who I really am.  Stephen

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After    participating on the online safety lesson, will you change how you use social media?

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After    participating on the online safety lesson, will you change how you use social media?

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Think before sharing - Alondra

I will ask permission before I tag friends and relatives in my posts - Samantha

I will check on my privacy settings to make sure no one can see my stuff except the friends that i know.  - Taty

I won't accept people I don;t know as friends -  Luz

I keep my things public, what school I go to, my age...I should keep my things private and not post everything about my life. Tony

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

The benefits of movement in the classroom aren't limited to younger students. Pairing new words and concepts with gestures or dance moves locks in understanding-and active brain breaks prime students to learn even more.

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A free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education.

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We help educators around the world use technology to solve tough problems.

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Should Digital Citizenship be taught in the schools?

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Should Digital Citizenship be taught in the schools?

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They need to be educated - before high school.  Pat Daley  Phys Ed Teacher

They need to be taught in middle school - what to put in, what not to put in.  Chris Denfeld  Science teacher

They need a repetitive approach to reinforce.
N. Dulz  middle school math teacher

These issues definitely need to be addressed if we are going to be using technology in the schools. This should be taught starting in 6th grade, if not even before that. Responsible use should be taught in elementary schools. Kristine Emond, Library Media Specialist

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Are students aware of and proactive about             protecting their information? 

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Are students aware of and proactive about             protecting their information? 

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Students say they know about privacy settings, but they don't take enough precautions - they don't think it applies to them.  K Blaisdell  Math Teacher

Students are more concerned about hiding what they post than they are about privacy.   R. Jordan, Guidance counselor

They have no clue that some of their information can be taken and used by someone else.. Pat Daley, Phys Ed teacher

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Flippity

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                                          Additional Learning!

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                                          Additional Learning!

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Common Sense Media: Age-Based Media Reviews for Families

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Common Sense Media is the leading source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families. Parents trust our expert reviews and objective advice.

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Technology is changing and becoming more and more an integral part of the workforce,  It is important that we teach our students how to use it responsibly and how them how it is a valuable tool - not just a social media playground.  We need to prepare our students for the  workplace in terms of technology, collaboration and critical thinking.

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Digital Citizenship in Schools, Third Edition

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Author:By Mike Ribble, description: , Category: Paperback Books, Length: 212 pages

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In speaking with my 9th grade students about technology and social media,, I came to realize that they are very naive when it comes to what happens to posts, pictures, snapchats, or any other information they share while online.
"If I delete it, it is gone."  Mekayla "If I delete it later on, no one will be able to go back and see it, so it's no big deal.."  Isiah
"Snapchat pictures are gone once they disappear off my phone"  Nikki
"I fix my settings so only my friends can see what I post"  Anthony

94% of my students use social media, and are online more than 5 hours per day, according to my survey (I have seen other sources citing most teens spend more than 9 hours per day)
They belong to multiple social media sites and most have over 100 'friends" (yet almost 74% report that they have "friends" that they don't know - they are friends of friends, people who liked something they posted, had a similar interest, etc.
Given the amount of identity theft and computer hacks, not to mention the instances of teens and children being caught up in bad situations, I felt that I needed to share with them how to be responsible and safe online.

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Survey Results - Before            the Lesson

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Survey Results - Before            the Lesson

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Please answer the questions below honestly. Just use the letter of your first name. This su

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As a young person, you are the main target of Safer Internet Day, but that does not mean you are a passive recipient of the collective effort towards the promotion of a better internet that takes place every February. In fact, there are a wealth of opportunities for young people to make their voices heard on matters relating to their safety and wellbeing in the online world, from contacting your national Safer Internet Centre or Safer Internet Day Committee and getting involved in their youth participation schemes, to becoming an advocate of Safer Internet Day on social media by sharing your experience of the digital environment and your aspirations for a better internet - take a look at our social media plans for inspiration. You can also be the change you want to see in the (online) world by being kind and respectful to others online, by protecting your online reputation and that of others, and by seeking out positive opportunities to create, engage and share online.

Parents and carers, you play a crucial role in empowering and supporting children and young people to use digital technologies responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively. Indeed, parental influence, guidance and education have a significant and long-lasting impact on children's safety and wellbeing in the online world. Therefore, there are plenty of ways for you to participate in Safer Internet Day, whether it is by ensuring an open dialogue with your children, educating them to use digital technologies safely and positively, or acting as digital role models. To help you achieve that, you may want to have a look at the SID resource gallery, where you'll find a range of resources to use with your children, from information sheets on various online opportunities and risks to conversation starters and even games, which are available in a variety of languages and for a variety of age groups. If you would like to find out more about specific actions and resources in your country, you can get in touch with your local Safer Internet Centre or Safer Internet Day Committee.

As a teacher or educator, there are various ways in which you can get involved in Safer Internet Day. Firstly, the most important way is to raise awareness - talk to your colleagues to plan whole-school actions, and provide a real focus with a day, week or even a month of safer and better internet activities. If you're looking for resources to support you in this, check out the SID resource gallery. Here, you'll find a range of resources from assembly and lesson plans, to printable games to use in the classroom, in a variety of languages and for a variety of age groups. You may also wish to make contact with your local Safer Internet Centre or Safer Internet Day Committee to find out about specific actions in your country. They may also be able to assist with more targeted resources. If your school has a social media account, you can support SID by tweeting and posting about your actions, and sharing our posts too. You can find suggested posts, visuals and covers in our social media plans.

As a representative of an organisation and industry, you are in a direct position to design, shape and adapt the platforms, services and content children and young people interact with on a daily basis. In doing so, you have the power to make a safer and better internet a concrete reality. You may get involved in Safer Internet Day by creating and promoting positive content and safe services online - to support you in doing so, we have designed a best practice guide on positive online content for children which you may find useful. You may also participate in Safer Internet Day by empowering your youngest users to respond to any issues by providing clear safety advice, a range of easy-to-use safety tools, and quick access to support if things do go wrong. Finally, we also encourage you to express your support for Safer Internet Day by posting about your actions on social media and by sharing our posts. You can find suggested posts, visuals and covers in our social media plans which will be published in the autumn of each year as we countdown to the day.

Policy makers and politicians can promote a safer and better internet by putting in place the conditions for the emergence of a culture in which all stakeholders are encouraged and empowered to make the choices that will guarantee that children and young people have the best possible online experiences. As a representative from policy, you may support Safer Internet Day by (re)affirming the need to provide opportunities in the national or local curriculum for children and young people to learn about online safety, digital and media literacy, by ensuring that parents and carers have access to appropriate information and sources of support, and that industry is encouraged to self-regulate its content and services. To make a long-lasting change to the digital environment, you also need to take the lead in governance and legislation in order to ultimately ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and young people through effective child protection strategies for the digital world.

Every February, Safer Internet Day is an opportunity for millions of people around the world to raise awareness of children and young people's online safety and wellbeing. For this reason, media outlets can truly help multiply the global reach of Safer Internet Day by using this occasion as an opportunity to explore the importance of online safety and digital literacy for children and young people in your media production. To support you in doing so, for each campaign we develop a range of promotional materials - to begin with, take a look at the Safer Internet Day key messages. As the day approaches, we'll provide an infographic and other media assets, and publish a number of news articles about Safer Internet Day celebrations and activities around the world. If you would like to become an advocate of Safer Internet Day, have a look at our social media plans, which are full of inspiration for posts and visuals to lend your support to the day.

Tuesday, 7 February, marked the 20th edition of the global Safer Internet Day under the motto "Together for a better internet". More and more schools, parents and young people contact Child Focus' helpline for questions about online safety or call specialised centres to guide them in their media use. Professionals and parents need tips and tools to assist children and young people in their digital exploration.

Safer Internet Day (SID) has become a global landmark event in the online safety calendar with 2023 being its 20th year. Safer Internet Day is an EU wide initiative to promote a safer internet for all users, especially young people.

iSIGURT.al, the national platform for a safe internet in Albania, which also functions as the national line for children's internet safety, is a national service established by CRCA/ECPAT Albania in 2015. It has as its main mission the reporting and removal of harmful materials on the internet, social networks and online media that contain sexual violence against children and adolescents, bullying and extreme violence against children and young people, as well as the language of hate crimes.

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Home - Safer Internet Day - BIK Community

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Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people in Europe and across the world.

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Internet safety awareness is more than a practice-it's a mindset. It's a way of safely and proactively living, working, and playing in a digital world. While vast and exciting, the Web is also unregulated. Unfortunately, many who use it don't practice respect and responsibility like the digital citizen does. That doesn't mean that we still can't keep our students and children safe.

Learning how to keep safe online is also a big part of being a Global Digital Citizen. We've got some tools for you to check out below. These are some fun and interesting games and apps for teaching Internet safety awareness.

Online Games for Internet Safety Awareness
Nova Labs Cybersecurity Lab
NOVA has joined forces with cybersecurity experts to create its Cybersecurity Lab. This is a game where players discover how they can keep their digital lives safe. The game helps players develop an understanding of the common cyber threats that exist online and their defences.
Digizen Game
This game is a followup to Digizen's cyberbullying film Let's Fight It Together. It takes place in the same school featured in the film. You can experience a day at school with Joe, the main character, and make decisions about how to help him with facing cyberbullying. The game teaches you to be a responsible digital citizen and to find out more about Internet safety.
Cyberwise Games List
Diana Graber and Cynthia Lieberman have applied their state-of-the-art education and 40+ years of combined entertainment/media experience to create Cyberwise. This is a website focusing on digital media for kids. They have a great list of online games for helping kids learn all about the ins and outs of Internet safety awareness.
OnGuard Online: The Case of the Cyber Criminal
A techie spy and his cunning crew are out to get your personal information. Stop them cold by proving you're ready to protect yourself online. Test your knowledge by answering questions about keeping yourself safe from online theft. The game is available for download or you can play it right indoor browser.
CommonSense Media Digital Passport
CommonSense Media are heavy hitters in the field of digital citizenship. The Digital Passport continues their tradition of excellence. Aside from top-notch class activities and modules, the program features unique Internet safety games kids will love.
Carnegie Cyberacademy Training Missions
The Carnegie Cyber Academy trains its cadets complete several training missions to equip them with skills they need to be good cybercitizens and Cyber Defenders of the Internet.
Webonauts Internet Academy
PBS Kids puts young kids through their Internet safety paces in the Webonauts Internet Academy. Webonauts teaches kids to make responsible and respectful decisions in all online interactions. The game has a series of missions focusing on web safety and qualities of a good digital citizen.

Apps for Internet Safety Awareness
Learning.com Digital Citizenship app
The Digital Citizenship app from Learning.com teaches grade 6-9 students how to be great digital citizens. They'll learn Internet safety, ethical resource sharing, guarding against cyberbullies, and more. This app also includes a built-in reporting feature that helps administrators meet the online safety and cyberbullying instruction requirements for E-Rate funding.
CommonSense Media Digital Compass
Digital Compass is a choose-your-own-adventure interactive app for iPad and iPhone. It lets students step into the shoes of one of eight characters to experience the twists and turns of daily digital life. The app has been developed for grades 6-9 and is available in both English and Spanish.
WebSafety
WebSafety is available for iPhone and iPad. Parents can monitor potentially harmful content or interactions occurring on their child's mobile device using this app. You can monitor all incoming information through a secure WebSafety account.

Additional Reading

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10 Useful Apps and Games for Teaching Internet Safety Awareness

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Internet safety awareness is more than a practice-it's a mindset. It's a way of safely and proactively living, working, and playing in a digital world. While vast and exciting, the Web is also unregulated. Unfortunately, many who use it don't practice respect and responsibility like the digital citizen does.

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Would you leave your      front door open?

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Would you leave your      front door open?

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Record your screen, share your thoughts, and get things done faster with async video.

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EasyBib®: Free Bibliography Generator - MLA, APA, Chicago citation styles

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Automatic works cited and bibliography formatting for MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian citation styles. Now supports MLA 9.

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The course you are trying to access has expired and you no longer have access to view its contents.

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Why Teach about Online Privacy and Safety?

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Why Teach about Online Privacy and Safety?

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Image

Credit Credit Getty Images

Earlier this week, Harvard University revealed that it had rescinded admissions offers to at least 10 students who shared offensive images within what they thought was a private Facebook group chat. The students posted memes and images that mocked minority groups, child abuse, sexual assault and the Holocaust, among other things.

It is easy for parents to be left wondering, "What were they thinking?"

Over the past few years, memes - usually images or videos with text often meant to be funny or sarcastic in nature - have become one of the most popular ways, along with photos and videos, that youth communicate on social media. While some of that communication can be positive, allowing teenagers to explore their own identity development and find a sense of belonging, it can also get teens in trouble.

Sharing videos, images and memes creates the opportunity for an instantaneous positive feedback loop that can perpetuate poor decision making. In an environment where teens spend around nine hours using some form of online media every day, it doesn't take long for them to be influenced by an "all-about-the-likes" sense of values that can potentially lead to life-altering decisions.

I've spent nearly two decades working with teens on organization and time-management in the heart of the Silicon Valley, and many teen girls tell me they have a real Instagram account ("rinsta") for a wider audience and then keep a "finsta" (friends-only or "fake" Instagram) for their closest friends.

Many teens use shortened versions of their names or aliases for finsta accounts, which they often see as an opportunity to share a less edited, less filtered version of their lives. They might spend a lot of time trying to capture the perfect Instagram photo for the "rinsta," which reaches a wider general audience, while a finsta might reveal, as one high school sophomore girl declared, "my innermost thoughts." Like the teens in the Harvard Facebook group chat, those using finsta accounts can have a false sense of confidence to say and do things they might not want a wider audience to see.

And because so much of today's teen social media use is rooted in a fear of getting caught, many teens have detoured their online activity to different ways of cloaked communication. Closed and secret Facebook groups are one way teens (and adults!) privatize communication to a select group - a closed group feels more private because it allows an administrator to approve new users and monitor content. Secret Facebook groups remain unsearchable, and members can only be added or invited by another member. Another trick is to use hidden apps like Calculator% and Calculator+ that look like regular calculators, but require users to enter their passcodes to reveal a back storage area containing private photos.

Also popular with secretive teens are storage apps like Vaulty, which allows users to hide photos and videos, and also has a "mug shot" feature, which takes a photo of anyone who tries to access the app using an incorrect password. Vaulty's most clever trick? Users can create two passwords for one vault, with each password tied to specific levels of access. So, a parent who insists that a teen hand over the password still might be getting limited access. Some teens just hide apps within folders on their phones. Parents wondering if their children are hiding something might look for a cleared search history and an unexplainable spike in data usage as potential red flags.

The ready availability of tools to hide teen social media use can be problematic, leading teens to overshare images, videos and commentary. But that privacy has long been proven to be unreliable, because information shared within a private group can be easily captured in a screenshot and shared with a wider audience. The notion of privacy online is only as reliable as teens' relationships with other users, and that combined with general privacy concerns provides little guarantee that online information will ever be kept secret. In the case of the Harvard students, administrators found out about images and messages shared within a private group chat, highlighting how easily information shared behind digital walls can quickly become more public.

What would motivate such seemingly intelligent teens to behave so recklessly online? Many people - adults and kids alike - view likes, loves, comments and followers as a barometer for popularity, even within a smaller, closed group. Teens can quickly get caught up in the feedback loop, posting and sharing images and videos that they believe will gain the largest reaction. Over time, teens' own values may become convoluted within an online world of instantaneous feedback, and their behavior online can become based on their "all about the likes" values rather than their real-life values.

There is a very real biological basis for this behavior. The combination of social media pressure and an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain that helps us rationalize decisions, control impulsivity and make judgments, can contribute to offensive online posts.

In a recent study, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the areas of teens' brains focused on reward processing and social cognition are similarly activated when they think about money and sex - and when they view a photo receiving lots of likes on social media. When teens viewed photos deemed risky, researchers found the brain regions focused on cognitive control were not activated as much, suggesting that it could be harder for them to make good decisions when viewing images or videos that are graphic in nature. Teens seeking external validation become intoxicated by sensationalist engagement, sometimes sending compromising photos or comments. Of course, some adults have fallen into the same trap.

Even though 86 percent of teens say they've received general advice around online use from their parents, researchers at Common Sense Media found that 30 percent of teens who are online believe their parents know "a little" or "nothing" about what social media apps and sites they use. And yet, teens still say that their parents have the biggest influence on determining what is appropriate and inappropriate online.

Adults need to shift the conversation around teens' social media use away from a fear of getting caught and more toward healthy socialization, effective self-regulation and overall safety. This would be all the more important if a bill that was just overwhelmingly passed in the House becomes law. The bill could make it a felony - punishable by 15 years in jail - if teens send consensual nude photos of themselves.

Some parents try to monitor their teen's social media use with apps of their own. Bark, an app that monitors accounts on 20 different social media platforms, along with iOS and Android texting and email accounts, alerts parents to potentially risky behavior. TeenSafe links teens' phones directly to their parents' phones, and allows full-fledged supervision of phone calls, emails, texts, social media use and geolocation. But such high-level monitoring runs the risk of breaching trust with teens at a crucial developmental time.

Another option is to help young social media users realize that their online and real-life experiences are more intertwined than they may think. Parents might, for example, cite current events, like the Harvard episode, to remind them that nothing online is ever completely private and talk to them about the ways private information can become public. Using open-ended questions will help encourage children to identify and develop their own values and standards around appropriate online behavior. Helping them think through how they might react or behave in certain scenarios can give them the confidence to make better decisions under pressure. Because in the end, teens' online life choices can have real-world outcomes - as those students whose admittance at Harvard was rescinded learned the hard way.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: 'Closed.' 'Fake.' 'Private': The Secret Social Media Lives of Teenagers. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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The Secret Social Media Lives of Teenagers

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Earlier this week, Harvard University revealed that it had rescinded admissions offers to at least 10 students who shared offensive images within what they thought was a private Facebook group chat. The students posted memes and images that mocked minority groups, child abuse, sexual assault and the Holocaust, among other things.

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Acceptable Use Policy Does your school have an AUP? Yes Where did you find it? After much searching- Principal, Library Media Specialist, Tech person in building were not sure where to find it! Finally located it on district website under their 3 Year Technology Plan Is it easy to access?

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9 Elements  of Digital Citizenship