Communicating Safely Online: Tip Sheet for Parents and Trusted Adults
a. Types of Unhealthy Online Relationships
Online exploitation is when someone uses digital media to find teens and get them involved in romantic or sexual relationships.
Online exploitation is when someone uses digital media to find teens and get them involved in romantic or sexual relationships.
Few issues capture our anxiety about young people and digital media so perfectly as sexting. As with technologies at least as far back as the telegraph, much of this anxiety has focused specifically on girls and women.
As a kid, did you ever hide a flashlight under your pillow? Then pull it out after you were supposed to be asleep, so you could sneak in another half-hour of reading?
I did that. A lot.
How can you help pre-teens understand the value of their personal information and empower them to take steps to manage and protect it? Data Defenders, an educational game for children ages 10 to12, lifts the curtain on data collection by showing how apps and games can find out all kinds of things about them and by providing steps they can take to control the collection of personal information online.
This Teacher’s Guide includes background information, learning expectations and points of discussion on the types of personal information and privacy-management strategies that are presented in the game. The guide also includes an overview of the Data Defenders game, and exercises and handouts to help students to develop skills and confidence to manage their privacy online.
The Data Defenders game teaches children and pre-teens about personal information and its value, and introduces them to the different ways they can manage and protect their personal information on the websites and apps they enjoy.
We have a few smartphone rules in our house: no phones after 9:30 p.m., no phones at the dinner table or other family events, and no phones in bedrooms.
My teens are still young and new to social media, so until now, we’ve mostly been focusing on the risks. Our main message to them has been to be careful, and that less time online is always better.