How can students stay safe on the Internet and using Email?
Internet safety
According to Lucas (2013), overprotective parenting and blocking websites does NOT keep children safe online. Education is the key to keeping student’s safe while using the Internet. He provides parents with three tips to help educate children on how to stay safe online.
1. Parents need to get involved and stay up-to-date on what to educate their children about online. The following is a tool that can help parents with online safety.
2. Provide resources and information to students so they can stay up to date with online safety.
3. Role play - create scenarios that could potentially happen online and see how your child would handle each situation.
Here is a quick video that gives Internet safety tips to both students and parents.
Email Safety
Many people today access their email account several times a day due to the convenience of hand-held, personal devices. According to Duvauchelle (2014), 76% of people in the United States use email. Respondents of a survey by the Harvard Business Review (2014) reported the top five reasons people use their email.
Since email today is easy to access and is used for virtually everything we do online, we must educate ourselves as parents and teachers to use email carefully.
Below are 8 tips for email safety (Rudick, 2011).
1. Have more than one email address - use one for purchases when you know the computer is secure. Use another email address
for personal communication and yet another for business/school.
2. Have a good anti-virus
3. Do not open attachments without scanning for viruses.
4. Have strong passwords
5. Never email passwords, financial information, social security number, or credit card data.
6. Limit access to your email.
7. Don't forward chain emails.
8. CC or Bcc to groups of people and never to reply to all if it should be to one person.
Common Sense Media. (2014, April 15). Internet Safety Tips for Kids [Video file}. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6WbpEL-PPw#action=share
Duvauchelle, D. (2014). Why We Use Email for Everything and How We Can be Better Emailers. TNW News. Retrieved on
August 26 from http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/02/03/use-email-everything-can-better-emailers/
Lucas, R. (2013). The Teacher's Guide to Keeping Students Safe Online. eLearning Industry Retrieved on August 26
from http://elearningindustry.com/the-teacher-guide-to-keeping-students-safe-online
Rudick, M. (2011). 8 Tips for Using Email Safely. Impowerage. Retrieved on August 26
from http://impowerage.com/lifestyle/technology-lifestyle/8-tips-for-using-email-safely