Practical advice for greater online safety: What you need to know about fraud, identity theft, virus

Educators' approach to internet safety in the classroom has changed as technology and our use of it continues to evolve. In the past, digital citizenship lessons on internet safety focused more on dos and don'ts, like do create safe passwords and don't talk to strangers online. While secure passwords are certainly important for technology users of all ages, and stranger danger is nothing to take lightly, most internet safety dilemmas are much more nuanced.

Children use the internet regularly and may be involved in more online activity than their parents. Some children may have greater technical knowledge than their parents, but they may be unable to identify the risks of giving too much personal information online, and may be unable to spot scams as readily as adults. So:

Practical advice for greater online safety

Download Zip

Online safety has always been important for students. In fact, all students in grades K-12 in Arlington ISD receive dedicated yearly instruction on digital citizenship through their campus library programs. But now that schools are closed and students have to do almost all of their work online, online safety is even more essential.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all aspects of our lives. With schools closed and lockdowns imposed, you may be spending all of your time at home and will most likely be spending a lot of that time online. This opportunity to spend much more time online can be both a positive thing and a social lifeline, but it also comes with the possibility of increased risks. Here are some practical steps you can follow to keep yourself safer during this period and improve the time that you and your family have both online and offline.

Having the latest information about safer platform design will help you prepare to keep your users safe. This may include keeping up to date with the latest online harms and safety technology information, as well as changes to safety legislation.

Your business should have someone who understands the risk to users posed by a service and who is responsible for deciding how you manage the online safety of your users. This could be you or one of your employees.

Simply put, teaching internet safety for kids can prevent long-term physical, emotional, and financial damages. Most students can suffer decades of psychological trauma from cyberbullying. By understanding the different online dangers, they can recognize them and not fall victim to them. For example, 89 percent of sexual solicitations of youth were made through instant messaging or chat rooms.

Understand internet safety: Make sure as a teacher, you equip yourself with the requisite knowledge needed about the dangers online. Get a good understanding of all the common tactics of internet hackers and cyberbullies to prey on innocent students. This can be looking out for fake profiles, strange unsolicited emails, and false promises.

Be a trusted adult for them: Often, once cyberbullying is found, it's already too late. Internet safety should be a long-term conversation, not just a one-time chat. It's important to continue to share practical advice in a fun and interesting way for students to consume so that they take your advice seriously. Try to check in on your students, and develop a relationship in which they can always come to you if they feel uncomfortable or something is upsetting them. Promise that there is a no-judgment or no-freakout reaction to anything that they could potentially bring up. Your student may be embarrassed to have spent $50 on loot boxes or that they tried to meet a fake friend online, but always be gentle and kind with your reaction. Judging will only exacerbate the issue. As a teacher, you can create an anonymous box for students to express their issues. Then you can privately speak to those particular students.

Utilize Available Resources: There are plenty of available resources online to learn more about internet safety and seek help if your student is in danger. If your student is in danger, you should contact the local police or CyberTipline. To learn more about cyberbullying for students, here are a few resources to check out:

Technological advancements have increased virtual communication. It's best to teach your students early about the potential dangers and limit their internet usage, but also create a bubble of websites and apps that they are allowed to use. Also, encourage their parents to continue the conversation at home and continue to provide other internet safety tips by using the available resources online. By practicing internet safety habits, you are minimizing the risk of cyberbullying and other cybercrime. Educate your students on internet safety and practice tips to avoid internet scams, online predators, and cyberbullies.

Read on to find out more about practical ways in which you can get involved in the campaign, not just on Safer Internet Day but all year around. Whether you are a young person, a parent or caregiver, a teacher, educator or academic, a policymaker, or whether you represent an organisation or industry, everyone has a role to play in creating and maintaining a better online world.

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.

The Code is an evolution of existing industry principles and standards that aims to broaden efforts, transparency and accountability for online safety and harm. It is built on existing practices in Aotearoa New Zealand and codes of practice in other parts of the world, mainly the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation, the EU Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online, the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation and the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership Best Practice Framework. Most of the digital platforms who have been involved in the development of the Code are already signatories to or members of these other codes.

The code is unique not only in the elements described above, but also in its collation into one place, existing principles and frameworks drawn from international and local sources. These, along with online safety, digital platform expertise, and Māori advisory input provided the basis for the development of the Code, allowing Netsafe and Signatories to develop a draft on which to seek wider feedback.

The Administrator and signatories have different backgrounds and operating models with a diverse range of products and services, but are united in their desire to make a meaningful contribution to online safety in Aotearoa New Zealand. We all have different paddles, but are in the same waka:

The rapidly evolving and global nature of the internet requires an equally flexible and agile approach to safety. Effective online safety requires leveraging specialist knowledge and partnerships, and is underpinned by transparency.

2.2 Respect freedom of expression and other fundamental human rightsThe internet has dramatically increased the power of people around the world to express themselves freely. Any efforts to address safety and harmful content online should respect freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights.

2.4 Recognise the transnational or global nature of the internetDigital platforms are transnational or global by nature and need to be able to operate on a transnational or global scale. Digital communication transcends borders, and therefore, efforts to effectively address safety and harmful content online should recognise the value of cross-border communications and the need for scalability.

A broad range of products and services, serving different and diverse user communities, make up the digital information ecosystem. Efforts to systemically address safety and harmful content issues across the entire digital ecosystem need to be inclusive and flexible, encouraging a variety of current and future digital technologies to participate or be guided by the Code. Digital platforms should have sufficient flexibility to innovate and respond in a way that best matches their risk profiles, as well as recalibrate and shift tactics in order to iterate, improve and address evolving threats online in real-time.

Best practice standards should focus on systems, policies and processes that enable digital platforms to responsibly balance safety, privacy, freedom of expression and other fundamental values. This provides an incentive for digital platforms to invest in policies, products, tools and programs that empower users to make informed decisions and have control over their experiences and interactions online. It also provides greater flexibility for digital platforms to respond and adapt quickly and appropriately to ever-changing risks of online harm.

The types of user behaviours, platform abuse, safety issues and harmful content online will vary greatly in incidence, risk-level and impact amongst the diverse range of products and services offered by digital platforms. Digital platforms should be incentivised to take action and respond in a way that is both risk-based and proportionate and necessary to the level of harm. Furthermore, the severity and prevalence of harmful content online, its status in law, and other efforts already underway (such as global standard-setting bodies and frameworks) should be taken into account. 2ff7e9595c