The Lake Washington School District and Lake Washington PTSA Council recently hosted three Internet safety parent seminars as part of an overall program to educate parents, students and educators. More than 140 parents attended the forums, which were held late January at the District Resource Center, Juanita High School and Eastlake High School.
Anne Allen and Conn McQuinn, educational technology specialists from the Puget Sound Educational Service District, who are certified i-SAFE America trainers, presented the programs.
The purpose of these forums was to alert parents, students and teachers to the issues their children face every time they utilize the Internet. (i-SAFE is an Internet safety education organization endorsed by Congress; see www.isafe.org.)
A DIGITAL DIVIDE
Julie Drennon, chief technology officer for the district, noted, "Our school district recognizes that a digital divide exists between many parents and their children when it comes to the use of technology. In most cases, the kids know more about the Internet and new technology than their parents. These presentations were designed to teach parents how they can protect their children from dangers that exist on the Web."
These three parent presentations on Internet safety provided an overview of the dangers our children experience when they use the Internet - a very useful but dangerous tool. The district and the PTSA Council felt it was important to bring these events to parent members of the community.
The forums clearly spelled out several serious issues facing children on the Internet and helped parents understand these issues, identify them and educate their children about them.
RECORDS ARE PERMANENT
For example, "page caching" is a snapshot of a Web page or Web log. It is a permanent record and these webpages are being stored in huge archives for eternity. Once a page is archived, it cannot be deleted. Personal information posted on the Internet will find its way onto a huge database. Other subjects included cyberbullying, intellectual property and plagiarism and staying safe from predators.
Too often, teens and pre-teens post unsafe, inappropriate and illegal items on their Web pages. Seventy-one percent of high school males and 61 percent of high school females have admitted this behavior in the last year. Fifty-six percent of middle school students have admitted the same behavior. This is based on a 2005-2006 study of more than 170,000 K-12 students.
GOOGLE YOUR NAME
Even when students use private chat rooms, their information can still be collected. For example, I do a Google search on my son's name every month and recently found his first, middle and last name on three global databases with links to background search companies (such as PeopleFinder).
Other suggestions for parents included keeping computers in a common room so that parents can monitor Internet usage. Parents should learn the abbreviations that kids use when text messaging each other, such as POS, which means parent over shoulder. Red flags include a child who minimizes a window on their computer (hiding what was on the screen when a parent walks by).
The PTSA is working toward making Internet safety presentations available to all district parent communities and sponsoring training for five individuals who will be able to present an Internet safety program to parents.
Stephanie Dickson is an i-Safe America educator and district parent. Kathryn Reith (kreith@lwsd.org), the district's director of communications and Melanie Miller, PTSA Council board member (melanieposdisc@att.net), contributed to this article.
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