Protecting yourself
As adults we are probably reasonable good at protecting ourselves so this section will mainly focus on how our children should protect themselves and how you can help them.
Read this story:
At my old school we had a fantastic visit from the police for the students which was teaching them about using chat rooms safely.
It started with a policeman asking one of the students to log on to a chatroom and see if anyone was there. He picked on a noisy male student aged 13,who thought a lot of himself.
Anyway as the student (Paul we shall call him) logged on, no one replied. So the policeman continued with his speech about security on the net.
Then sure enough someone in the chat room replied with 'Hi'. It turned out to be a girl called Emma, aged 15 years old who also lived in London. So Paul and this girl, innocently flirted with each other over the net.
Later on in the lecture the policeman was joined by another officer who we hadn't seen before. He immediately asked who Paul was. Paul stood up and said 'Hello' and this male Police officer said 'Hi I'm Emma'.
Well the class was shocked and laughed.
But what was very powerful was, the Policeman (Emma) relayed all the information that he had got out of Paul. He knew where he lived, which school he went to etc.
It was really very interesting to watch the students faces as they realised how much info Paul had given to a complete stranger.
It might be good to post a notice like the one below on the wall next to the computer.
Rules for meeting someone online
- Never share personal information, such as your name, age, address, school, telephone number or the name of your sport's team.
- People online may not be who they say they are. Don't believe everything you read. For example, an older person might pretend to be an 11-year-old boy or girl. Whatever you are told online may or may not be true.
- Never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone you've met online without your parent or carer's permission.
- Do not send pictures of yourself, family, or home to someone you've met online.
- If a person writes something that is mean or makes you feel uncomfortable, don't reply. Log off and tell your parent, carer or teacher.
The important message is talk to your children about their use of the Internet.
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